REPERCUSSIONS
by lilgizzy1983
Summary: Set after Felicity tells Oliver the truth about Thea. Alternate of the fall out for Felicity and the Queen family. So far it's rated T but might move to M later.
1. Chapter 1

ARROW FIC. SET DIRECTLY AFTER OLIVER BEING TOLD TRUTH ABOUT THEA AND WALKING OUT ON HIS MOTHER.

I OWN NOTHING. THIS FIC WORM WAS BUGGING ME AFTER THAT EPISODE AND IS STILL IN MY HEAD. MUST. COMPELTE. STORY. ENJOY.

I DON'T OWN ARROW. OBVIOUSLY. OR IS IT OBVIOUS? WHO KNOWS WHO I COULD BE…JUST KDDING I DON'T OWN IT.

CHAPTER 1 "REVELATIONS"

Felicity was still in the white dress she had been wearing all day. It was just an hour or two after the press conference announcing Moira's candidacy for mayor. Only hours after she had dropped one of the biggest bombs of his life on Oliver. She had never felt so terrible seeing the look on someone's face as she had that day. On top of that, Felicity had felt completely vulnerable in that moment, revealing her most painful weakness to the strongest man she knew. She was humiliated by what she had revealed, but she also knew there was no other way she'd have spoken up.

Having no will power to do anything but go straight to the kitchen after she got home, she had been sitting on her counter in her condo for 20 minutes eating ice cream out of the carton. Shoeless. It was completely silent in her little fortress of solitude. Felicity was free to cry, and wallow, and selfishly obsess over her past in peace. However, she felt guilty about it of course. What Oliver was going through right now was more pressing than her childhood trauma. She wondered if he would tell Thea. If so, what would be her reaction? What would be Moira's reaction? Did she just implode an entire family through her obsessive meddling? Why couldn't she have just stopped her stupid fingers from typing and turn her genius brain OFF!? Her stupid quirk about solving mysteries led to her friend getting hurt. She'll probably have to go back to her years long self-imposed isolation, protecting herself and others against her huge, inappropriately tenacious, MIT brain.

The loud swift knock at her front door broke her out of her thoughts with a start. She banged her head on the cabinet behind her and dropped her ice cream and spoon on the floor. Which was devastating enough since it was her last pint. Her fridge being ridiculously bare from her minimal time spent at home.

Another round of knocking jolted her again, reminding her that she does in fact need to get the door. She hopped off the counter, avoiding the ice cream, and padded on the balls of her feet hurriedly to the door. Reaching back to where she hit her head earlier, she quickly and anxiously reached for the door and yanked it open while at the same time looking towards the clock. It was 10 pm, who could be here this late. She turned back toward the open door and…

**SMACK**

Felicity was sent stumbling sideways, and almost fell to a lean against her couch. Luckily, it was there or else she would have lost her balance completely and fallen. She looked up to see Moira in her doorway rubbing her hand.

"Bitch!" Moira said, trying to hold back tears. "He walked out on me!"

Felicity was still leaning, her back against the couch and hand on her face. Her expression not so much shock as guilt and understanding. She knew what it was like to have someone you love walk out on you, powerless to stop them.

"I was trying to protect them." Moira said in a calmer tone than before.

She walked right in and up to Felicity so they were face to face. Felicity was paralyzed, she didn't know why, but she couldn't move from her spot. She could now see the sadness, and a hint of fear, in Moira's puffy, red eyes. Tears welled up in her own. She flinched as an impulse as Moira put her hand up to softly take Felicity's hand from her cheek. As Moira removed Felicity's hand, she gently placed her thumb on her cheek at the corner of Felicity's mouth. Flinching again, but this time in pain at the touch, all Felicity could do was stare, knowing she deserved it for intruding in their family affairs. But Moira's face had softened.

"I was trying to protect you, too. I don't want to see anyone else get hurt, but I guess that's inevitable now." Moira spoke softer until the end of the sentence was almost a whisper.

"Come on, I'll help you clean that up." Moira said with her hand still on Felicity's split lip. Not until she looked down at her hand, did Felicity even realize she was bleeding.

"Oh." was all Felicity could manage, as Moira took her hand and led her into the kitchen like she owned the place.

"No it's fine really, I deserved it…" Felicity started.

Moira cut her off quickly, "No you didn't. I did." She mumbled. "Now sit down."

Felicity did as she was told, and sat at her modest kitchen table made for only two at the most. She watched as Moira picked up the long forgotten ice cream off the floor and put it in the sink. She stared in confusion and wonder as Moira proceeded to move around her kitchen like it was her own and grab a couple of clean towels, some ice from the freezer and a glass of water. She put them down on the table next to Felicity. Moira pulled up the other chair and sat across from her, proceeding to wipe the small amount of blood off of her mouth and chin, replacing the wet towel with a towel filled with ice.

"Hold that right there. Where's your first aid kit?" Moira asked.

"Uhh, uh bathroom cabinet, down the hall to the left." Felicity squeaked out. This was all so surreal. Moira Queen had showed up to her home, hit her, and is now acting like (what she would assume to be) how a mother acts when a child is hurt. Not the she would know what that was like.

She was jarred from her thoughts when Moira came back in with Hydrogen Peroxide, antibiotic ointment, and a butterfly bandage.

"It can't be that bad…" Felicity stated, wincing as she spoke. "Oh, I guess it does sting a little."

"It's bad enough." Moira said quietly, with a look of sympathy and guilt.

"I didn't come here to do that. I guess my emotions got the best of me. I'm not known for having a short temper."

Felicity scoffed "It's ok, I'm used to Oliver, this was a walk in the park. I mean…not that he's ever violent…or…I'm sure he could be he's huge. I mean…"

"Ms. Smoak." Moira stopped her and put a finger up to her lips "Shh. I have to clean your lip."

"Sorry...I…shutting up." Felicity winced again with the words and then made a soft whimper as Moira put the Hydrogen peroxide and ointments on the still somewhat bleeding cut. Moira was gentle putting on the small butterfly bandage and then held the ice back up to Felicity's mouth and cheek. Felicity placed her hand over the towel and held it in place.

"Ms. Smoak. I…" She sighed, Felicity wondered why she was still here, what could she want to talk to her about that was so difficult. And why her?

"OK, let's start at the beginning. When you came by last night, I panicked. The second you left I looked into you, I looked into your past to the best of my ability, which isn't anywhere near yours. I was hoping I'd find something to indicate that my stunt, my manipulation, was going to work. That you'd keep your mouth shut."

Felicity just looked back at her horrified. _THE_ Moira Queen had looked into her, and found out about her ugly past. It was bad enough that she'd given Oliver PART of the story, let alone this. Felicity stood up almost knocking the chair over. Her normal rambling wouldn't do with her mouth hurting. All she could manage was a straggled "WHAT?!"

"Felicity, Ms. Smoak, sit back down. Please let me finish." She motioned for the chair with a pleading look in her eyes.

Felicity was fuming, and paced a couple of times before finally settling back down looking at the floor.

"Ms. Smoak, everything I read about you… I wasn't able to find much, it seems like someone did a number on your personal records." She cleared her throat and gave Felicity a knowing look. Felicity just turned away again, staring at nothing in particular.

"What I did find…it sounds like you had a terrible time, and I'm sorry. But it also gave me a little bit of hope…given your history…that you'd back off and let this go out of fear. I know how you feel about Oliver, I can see it in your eyes…" Felicity looked up at her startled…"There it is, right there. You need him. And for you to tell him, to take that leap up faith, that measn that you are stronger and braver than I would have ever expected." Moira said sincerely, staring at Felicity in the eyes.

"So..?" Felicity asked, "What are you going to do to me?"

Moira glanced down at the floor and then glanced to the side. When she looked back at Felicity her entire demeanor had changed to one of dread.

"Ms. Smoak, I needed you to keep quiet. I did my best to use your feelings for Oliver against you because if you told him, and if he…" She paused and took a deep breath. She definitely had Felicity's curiousity.

"If Oliver found out, and if anyone else found out. You, him, Thea, and everyone we all know is in terrible danger." Moira's face went white as she realized she had just told Felicity part of the truth, there was no turning back now.

"Danger from what?" Felicity asked slowly and carefully.

Moira took one more deep breath before admitting her dark secret.

"Malcolm Merlyn is alive."

Suddenly there was a loud crash of glass and the familiar sound of an arrow sticking into Felicity's kitchen table.

Both women screamed in surprise. Felicity got a good look at the arrow before ducking behind the counters with Moira. It was black.

Moira's voice trembled with fear. "He knows…"


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 "INEVIDIBILITY"

_Moira's voice trembled with fear._ _"He knows."_

"Stay down!" Felicity said to Moira in a hushed tone.

She knew she had to get in touch with Oliver, and that her phone was on the counter where it was tossed to the wayside earlier. She took one second, and quickly glanced up over the countertop to see where it was, then crouched back down, heart pounding. In one swift motion, she reached her arm up as fast as she could to try and grab her phone.

It was like everything was happening in slow motion. She reached up, felt her phone, grabbed a hold of it, and went to pull it back down. She heard the whizzing sound before she felt it and saw her phone land on the floor in front of her and Moira. As Felicity was focused on her phone, wondering how it had gotten there, she heard Moira's cry. That's when she looked down at her arm to see another black arrow had put a very long, very deep gash from her left hand, and partially down her forearm.

All she could do was let out a sharp exhale and look over at a horrified Moira. It didn't take long for the adrenaline to kick in, and for everything to start moving at normal speed again. Her oversized brain working double overtime to figure out the next move. After what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality only a few seconds, she shot into action. Felicity grabbed the phone on the floor with her good hand and started fumbling to dial. At some point she must've started breathing again and she could hear her pulse pounding in her ears over Moira's panicked voice. She didn't register what Moira was saying, only that she had to dial quickly because she was sure Merlyn would be in her house in seconds.

As Felicity was trying to dial Oliver, hands shaking making it difficult, she didn't notice Moria grab one of the discarded towels from the floor. It was only when Moira wrapped it around her arm and squeezed did she feel the cut on her arm. It hit her all at once, and sent a jolt of pain through her entire arm, shoulder and almost blinded her with spotty vision. Felicity fell stright to the floor and couldn't breathe for at least a few seconds. She had dropped her phone again, but she had already hit send and speaker, though now her phone was covered in her own blood. Once she could see and hear again, she registered Moira's voice yelling at Oliver to get to Thea and hide her.

"….Mother, what the hell are you doing with Felicity!? WHERE IS SHE!?" Felicity heard Oliver's voice through Moira's screams.

"Oliver I'm here." Felicity pants through deep breaths.

"Felicity, what the hell…"

"Oliver! Shut up! We're at my house, Merlyn is shooting at us. HE'S ALIVE OLIVER!" It was the quickest way she could think to get him to understand.

"…What do you mean…I was there! I watched him die…"

"What!?" Moira interjected.

Felicity put her free hand over Moira's mouth to shut her up so she could keep Oliver on task.

"Oliver listen to me, you're mom is right. You don't have time to get to us, he's gonna do whatever he's gonna do. Go to Thea, make sure she's safe. Then get here whenever you can." She panted.

"But…"

"OLIVER GO! NOW!" Felicity used her loud voice, which meant business.

"I'm on my way to Thea, I'm sending Digg to you!" Oliver yelled and she heard other raised voices in the background.

"NO! He'll get killed!" Felicity panicked at the thought of her best friend in a possible combat situation with Merlyn.

"Send Roy and Sara! I'll need Dig when we get back." (If we make it back, she thought.)

"Felicity…are you…" Oliver's voice was interrupted by one loud bang at her door. The two women screamed out of surprise.

"Ollie GO!" Felicity yelled as loud as she could, she was growing slowly weaker from blood loss and her dress was half covered in red. Moira just sat, holding Felicity's arm, horrified and confused. She had no idea what had just transpired on the phone, but it was like they were speaking in code to her. There was no time to focus on that as all they saw was a big, black figure standing over them.

Merlyn stomped on the phone, shattering it, immediately cutting off Oliver's still shouting voice. As he looked down at them, he pulled off his black hood, arrow up and stared at Moira.

"I told you no one was supposed to know yet. You failed, Moira. This is your fault." He said in a dark tone.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, she found out and I tried to keep her from telling anyone but…" Moira stammered, visibly paling at his words.

"SHUT UP! I've got to do damage control! You changed everything!"

"I'm sorry please…"

Moira was cut off by an arrow hitting Felicity in her chest, near her left collarbone. And a sharp inhale followed by Felicity's short, choked scream.

"I'll let her bleed out nice and slow. Right in front of you. I'm assuming she has her precious Oliver going after his sister first. No matter, I'll find them. If this one happens to survive, I'll happily just come back and do it all over again. Enjoy, I've got to go find our daughter before dear brother get to her. Hopefully he does the stupid thing and comes here first." With that, Merlyn stalked away slamming the door angrily behind him.

Moira stared at Felicity who was now laying on her side on the floor bleeding profusely, and breathing hard and fast.

"Ms. Smoak!" She looked at Felicity in the eyes and tried to get her to focus through the pain, but all she was seeing was a cloudy, panicked, pained expression.

"FELICITY! Listen to me! Look at me!" She got Felicity's attention as she blinked and her eyes snapped over to Moira's.

"You're going to be ok. Alright? He's gone. You called for help. They'll be here. You're going to be alright!" Moira was stroking Felicity's face, wiping the tears that Felicity was unable to stop.

All she could think about was the pain in her chest. The weight pressing down on her lungs as she tried to breath. She tried to focus on Moira's face, on what she was saying instead of the pain. It was only partially successful, and as her adrenaline high started wearing off she started to recognize how tired and tingly she felt. That was the only word she could think of to describe it. She wasn't a big drinker in college, or even in her adulthood, but she couldn't help but feel like she was drunk. Like she couldn't feel her face or her hands. She had only been drunk like that once and she hated it. She hated the dizzy, light-headed feeling of not being in control of her own body.

Somewhere along the line she was snapped back into reality when she heard other shouts and felt a sudden, massive jolt of pain. She thinks she screamed, but all she could hear was a high-pitched buzzing noise. Felicity tried to open her eyes at the pain to see what was causing it. It took her a lot longer than she would've liked, so knew she was in serious trouble.

When she did finally get her eyes open, she realized she was in the backseat of a car in someone's arms. As soon as she registered her vision, her hearing came back full force, and she was startled into alertness. Along with alertness came the unbearable pain. She tried to scream once but it hurt too much and she silenced almost instantly.

"Hey you, you're awake! Felicity, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you understand, sweety?" Sara said.

Felicity looked up recognizing who it was, and her request. She squeezed lightly indicating she was with them.

"Good. Good, glad to have you back, you were out for a few minutes there. You're gonna be ok, we're almost there. Can you hold out a few more minutes for me? Can you stay awake?" Sara pleaded soothingly. Though Felicity could hear other indistinguishable shouts and yelling in the background she tried to focus just on Sara's voice. She nodded softly, not sure if she'd be able to adhere to the promise she'd just made.

**A/N: OK that's it for now, I had quite the internal struggle as to whether or not to make Moira a good guy or a bad guy. I guess I'm a sap. Lol. Maybe I'll do an alternate version after this, because I'd always seen her as a bad guy in that episode in my brain. **

**I hadn't really planned on so much support right off the bat, so thank you all so much for following! I'm going to try and do a chapter a day. I haven't fully planned this story out yet so suggestions are welcome. I'll see if I can work them in. THANKS!**

**~JAG**


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 "PERSPECTIVES"

"Ms. Smoak!" She looked at Felicity in the eyes and tried to get her to focus through the pain, but all she was seeing was a cloudy, panicked, pained expression.

"FELICITY! Listen to me! Look at me!" She got Felicity's attention as she blinked and her eyes snapped over to Moira's.

"You're going to be ok. Alright? He's gone. You called for help. They'll be here. You're going to be alright!" Moira was desperately trying to convince both Felicity and herself that she would be ok.

The pale gray hue of the face of the woman lying on the ground in front of her was filled with shock and pain. Her feelings of guilt and frustration were rising rapidly as she scrambled for more towels for Felicity's chest and arm. The first towel on Felicity's arm already having been soaked through.

How could she have let Malcolm get into this position of power again. He should be dead! She wracked her brain over how she could've handled things differently as she wrapped a towel around the arrow sticking out of Felicity's chest. She genuinely liked this girl. Though she didn't know her well personally, she had been observing her and Oliver together for months, and knew that Walter cared about her as well. This little genius girl had somehow managed to stumble her way into the hearts of her two favorite men, and that was enough to prompt her to pay attention.

Moira had lied to Felicity earlier. She said that she had investigated her last night after she stopped by. In actuality, Moira was curious about the IT tech come Executive Assistant that seemed to be able to stand toe to toe with her imposing son and keep him in line. She had a background check done on her months before, and only in that preliminary search did she discover the painful hidden truths in Felicity's past. Her Father, her mother's illness, and her solitude. Even with all of that, this girl (let's face it after everything she'd been through she hadn't been a girl for quite some time) Felicity had managed to stay light, and loving, and she was brave enough to tell Oliver the truth after everything.

Moira had felt shameful about the way that she used everything she had found against Felicity the night prior. Unfortunately, she also knew that if Malcolm caught wind that his secret was about to get out, he would stop at nothing to take Felicity out. Out of a moment of desperation, she hurt the woman who clearly loved her son.

When she got to Felicity's home earlier that night, she had been so upset. Mostly because now she knew that everyone they both loved would be in danger. She immediately felt remorse for striking at her like she did. It was mostly out of grief and fear, but then she saw Felicity's face, it wasn't what she would have unexpected. Moira didn't see fear, anger, or even pain. She just saw sadness, understanding, and something else she couldn't place. When Felicity started rambling about how it was her fault, and not to worry about it, Moira realized that Felicity was used to it. That sadden her more than anything, that she had done something to this girl that had clearly been done to her so many times before. She was no better than Felicity's absentee father, or mentally ill, abusive mother. Just another in a long line of people who had hurt her. Is this what she had expected of Oliver when she told him the truth? How could she have done it and expected such consequences? As she looked into the eyes of the woman in front of her, all she wanted to do was take everything back. She would gladly take any punishment on herself that would've stopped Merlyn from getting to this point. Although she was at a loss for what she could've done to stop it.

Her mind flashed to the conversation Oliver and Felicity had on the phone. She wondered what exactly he meant when he said he was there when Malcolm died. She then wondered what sort of relationship him and Felicity and Diggle have that she doesn't know about. Who are Sara and Roy? She obviously knows a Roy, but he doesn't have a relationship with Felicity or Oliver that she knows of. All she knew is that she couldn't focus on that right now, Felicity needed help.

As if on cue, shouting and footsteps burst through the door loudly and bound toward the kitchen.

When the two people she least expected came to a screeching halt at the edge of the doorway, time seemed to stand still for what seemed like an eternity.

ARROW/ARROW/ARROW

AT THE LAIR

"…What do you mean…I was there! I watched him…" Oliver said into the phone as he was abruptly cut off by his mother's voice. He was wildly snapping for Diggle, Roy and Sara to get over to him.

They ran over and watched, questioning him as to what was going on, hearing only his side of the conversation. At the mention of Thea's name, Roy started yelling and Sara was trying to shut him up so she could hear. But everybody stopped as Oliver's demeanor abruptly changed and he said those words…

"Felicity…are you…" then he jumped at some unknown noise…

…everyone knew something was seriously wrong.

He started yelling, asking them what had happened…but he knew and he immediately paled at the thought. When he heard the phone go dead. He inhaled sharply and held it for no more than 2 seconds before immediately turning to Sara and Roy.

"You two get over to Felicity's, bring her and my mother back here."

"WHAT!?" They both asked, almost in unison.

"JUST DO IT NOW! GO! MALCOLM MERLYN IS ALIVE! HE'S THERE! BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING!" he took a breath as he processed the words he'd just said.

"I think Felicity is already hurt, and who knows what he'll do to them? Who knows if he'll take them? Just GO! Get them back here! Dig, stay here, get the supplies ready for anything!" He was already running for the door, grabbing easy weapons on the way, followed by Sara and Roy who were doing the same.

"Where are you going!?" Sara yelled up the steps after him.

"What about Thea!?" Roy rushed.

"I've got Thea! You guys go, be careful! Merlyn is dangerous!" Oliver yelled back to them, already hopping on his motorcycle.

ARROW/ARROW/ARROW

The ride over to Felicity's condo was quiet but frantic. Roy was taking curves too fast and running red lights, but Sara was unconcerned with that. They just needed to get to her house as soon as possible. They had no idea what to expect when they got there. Their friend and Oliver's mother could both be dead, they could be injured, bleeding. The waiting was the worst part. Not being able to do anything to help, to defend them. Neither of them even bothered with any sort of disguise, that would have been too much time taken away from getting to where they were needed.

When they arrive at the condo everything seemed normal. Door shut, lights on, no one outside. They screeched to a halt out front and ran up to the door, Roy almost breaking it down as he punched it open. They started yelling Felicity and Moira's name as they ran through the small one bedroom until they got to the kitchen and everything skidded to a halt.

It was like a horror movie. Roy had never seen anything like it, even when Oliver had shot him in the leg. Felicity's dress was covered in blood, as was Moira, who had blood on her face, clothes and hands. Felicity's face was white as a sheet and sweaty, but she was breathing. Thankfully. Moira looked up at them in shock, as if she didn't believe who was standing in front of her.

Sara took action first, she quickly took the 3 steps over to Felicity and check her pulse. It was quick and weak. They needed to hurry.

"Moira. MOIRA!" She tried to grab Moira's attention and the woman snapped her head in Sara's direction.

"Sara?"

"How long ago was she shot!?" Sara yelled, grabbing yet another towel and rewrapping the injured arm much tighter.

Moira replied with a studder, "…Uhh..Ummm..not sure, maybe 5 or 10 minutes. I…I didn't…"

"Moira, look at me, there are a lot of things you're not going to understand right now, but I need you to focus, and answer my questions ok!"

Moira just nodded.

"How long has she been unconscious?" Sara asked.

Moira looked down at Felicity's face, when HAD she lost consciousness? She didn't realize it had happened. She must have been focused on stopping the bleeding.

"I don't know, couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes. I was focused on the arrow; getting the bleeding stopped…I didn't know what to do…" Moira added quietly.

Sara motioned for Roy to help her get Felicity into the car.

"Roy, carry her out to the car, GENTLY! Moira keep pressure on that chest wound. DON'T MOVE THE ARROW!" Sara grabbed hold of Felicity's arm tight and Roy scooped her up easily into his arms.

Felicity gasped and quietly moaned in pain from the movement but her eyes remained eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed and she grimaced.

As the ran and Felicity was jostled more, she seemed to be coming around. By the time they got her to the car and laid her in the back with Sara, she ha d started to open her eyes. Sara was trying to talk her awake as Roy slipped in to the driver's seat and Moira in the passenger seat.

"Did Oliver get Thea? What the hell do you have to do with any of this!? How are YOU alive!?" Moira was yelling frantically, not at all understanding what was happening.

"Mrs. Queen, I'm sorry, but right now I need you to SHUT UP! I'm trying to get us there alive!" Roy yelled back to her, just before they all heard an abbreviated, strangled scream of pain from Felicity.

Sara looked down at her with understanding eyes and caught her attention. Finally, she was alert again.

"Hey you, you're awake! Felicity, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you understand sweety?" Sara said.

She let out an audible sigh as Felicity weakly squeezed her hand. She still had a chance as long as she could keep her conscious long enough.

"Good. Good, glad to have you back, you were out for a few minutes there. You're gonna be ok, we're almost there. Can you hold out a few more minutes for me? Can you stay awake?" Sara tried to be as calm as possible for Felicity to minimize adrenaline and to keep her from panicking.

When she received a slight nod in return she nodded back to Felicity and then glanced up at Roy.

"Roy, step on it. Felicity, we're almost there honey can you keep looking at me? Alright? I know it hurts, push it to the back of your mind. Think about something else. Something that makes you happy…" Sara was trying to soothe her as much as possible. Felicity was taking short, rapid breaths that looked painful each time.

"The…unhh…" Felicity tried to speak but winced and regained her composure.

"What was that?" Sara asked concerned?

Felicity forced a small smile on her face. Sara looked confused.

"The…salmon ladder…" and Felicity let out a sharp breathe that Sara took as an attempt at a laugh. Sara smiled and let out a laugh of her own, drawing the attention of the other two in the vehicle.

"Yeah he does look good doing that doesn't he? I'll tell you what though, he's got nothin' on me. I climb that shit like a ninja. Plus I'm cuter." Sara added with a sad smile as she wiped the tears from Felicity's face.

With that, Roy pulled up to an abrupt stop at the club. Finally. The jolt made Felicity wince again, and Sara realized they were going to have to move her while she was awake this time. As she and Roy looked over at the back entrance to the Foundry, Moira followed their eyes to Diggle. He had been diligently waiting at the door for someone to update him but in the hustle, no one had a chance to call. He ran up to the car and looked in the backseat. Once he processed with was happening he quickly opened the door and grabbed Felicity from Sara's arms gently. Felicity tried not to scream at the immense pain being moved caused her chest and arm. Luckily she was starting to get that numb, drunk feeling again. Her head lulled back and she almost fell back into pleasant unconsciousness when she felt someone pick her head back up.

To her surprise it was Moira Queen. Holding her head up and keeping her gaze as best she could with Diggle almost at a run.

"You're not going to die because of this, do you hear me Ms. Smoak? You're going to be ok! WAKE UP!" Moira Yelled the last part and Felicity was startled again.

"I'm up…Ow" she said between pants of breath. They reached the stairs and Moira had to let go of Felicity and follow Dig down to the Foundry.

**A/N: OK I tried to put a little background into it. You'll get more. I have some twists and turns planned. "Planned" I guess is more like it. We'll get back to the action tomorrow I promise. I'm literally letting this story just write itself. But I'm trying to takes the reviews into account. Thanks for helping me out. I'm not much of a creative writer, I was more of a screenplay gal. Also, I don't always have time to proofread at work. I catch what I can but I'm doing these pretty quickly at the office (shh don't tell). Lemme know what you guys think!**

**JAG**


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 "SHOCK AND SCRAMBLE"

"_I'm up…Ow" she said between pants of breath. They reached the stairs and Moira had to let go of Felicity and follow Dig down to the Foundry._

Diggle took the steps at almost a run, being careful not to jostle the arrow. He already knew from looking at Felicity that she was in shock; she had lost too much blood. Hopefully, she wouldn't remember much of this, because he knew she had to be in immense pain. Arrows are a bitch.

He carefully laid her on the med bay table somewhat on her side. She was still awake, but not speaking and not moving. She wasn't even screaming, just quietly crying and breathing in hard, short shallow breaths. He yelled at Sara to get the blood Felicity had stored there, and at Roy to get bolt cutters from the tool closet. Moira just stood on the bottom step of the Foundry looking like she was going to throw up right there. He wasn't sure if that was from the blood or from the shock of being in the Arrow lair.

Diggle wasn't sure if she had stored enough blood, but Oliver and Felicity had the same blood type, so if he had to he could move on to Oliver's blood bags. He began to cut off the top part of her dress. This was no time for modesty, she was dying, she could yell at him later. He examined the arrow in her chest and hooked her up to the monitors he had readied while the other were getting the supplies. He didn't think it had nicked her lung because her breathing, but he was worried about her subclavian artery near her collarbone. If he wasn't extremely careful in removing the arrow she could bleed out in seconds. In examining it, he noticed that Merlyn seemed to be going for pain and a slow bleed out as opposed to a quick kill. He let himself flash with anger just for a second, then quickly got back to task.

As soon as Sara came over with the blood bags he told her to start a line and get blood in her. He took the bolt cutters from Roy and told him to hold her in position, just in case she tried to move away from the pain he was afraid he was about to cause. He carefully put the bolt cutters in position around the front of the arrow as close to Felicity's back as possible, glanced up at Roy in an unspoken plea to keep her still and quickly snapped the end of the arrow.

Felicity flinched as much as Roy would allow and screamed as sharp pain radiated through her entire left side. She quickly passed out, either from blood loss or pain, at that point know one knew.

"FELICITY! Wake up! Wake up!" Sara yelled in a panic.

"No, it's better this way, she shouldn't have to be awake for all this. She here now, let her be." Diggle stated as he taped the bandage to her and turned her carefully onto her back.

By this time, Moira had come closer to watch them work. Never really one to be squeamish, she just stared at them. She couldn't really process everything else yet. With no real answers she just decided to focus on Felicity until someone told her what the hell was going on. Although she had already guessed. Denial was going to be a powerful tool for her though, until she heard the words come from Oliver's mouth, she was going to choose to remain as oblivious as possible.

As Diggle was stabilizing the arrow for removal, Sara was stitching up Felicity's hand and arm as quickly as possible. It wasn't too serious on it's own, but coupled with the chest wound, she was losing too much blood. Sara knew that the quick stitch job wouldn't cut it in the long run and they would have to be redone, but for now they were just focused on stopping the bleeding.

Felicity's pulse was looking a little stronger now that she had blood flowing openly back into her veins, but her oxygen was still a little too low. Diggle put the mask over her face and then went back to work on the arrow.

Roy had backed away, waiting for someone to ask him to do something. Anything to help. He knew that once Thea got there she would need him. Somewhere in Moira's ramblings in the car, she had mentioned the truth about Thea's paternity to him. He's not even sure if she remembers doing it. He's pretty sure Moira was in some stage of shock. As he glanced over at her, her face was pale, save for the small amount of Felicity's blood on her cheek. She was staring at Diggle and Sara. She didn't even look confused. He thought that she must have put it together, but didn't know to what extent she had processed the information.

They had been working on her for just ten minutes when everything came to an abrupt halt at the sound of the door beeping open and Thea's voice beginning a tirade. Oliver's footsteps bounded down the steps towards them. When he got to the bottom he paused for a split second, inhaled sharply, then immediately bolted towards the med bay table.

"Ollie, I don't what the hell is going on, but you're freaking me out, and why the fu….whoa." Thea's chiding was stopped in it tracks once she got to the bottom of the steps to see the scene unfolding in the Foundry. Roy jogged over to her. He couldn't help but noticed how much like her mother her expression looked , standing on the bottom of the same steps just ten minutes earlier. Moira looked over at Thea as soon as she came into view and with a sigh a relief also went over to be close to her beloved daughter.

"FELICITY! What happened!? How bad!? Was she conscious!?" Oliver was more panicked than they had ever seen him, except for Sara of course. She had seen him act this way only about one other person, Shado.

Diggle put his hands on Oliver's shoulders, partially out of comfort, but mostly so Oliver wouldn't touch Felicity or move her.

"Whoa, take it back man. Let us work. She's doing ok for now, but let us do our thing. Okay?" Diggle tried to calm Oliver down so he could get back to work removing the arrow from Felicity's chest.

Sara just glanced at Oliver knowingly and got back to work in the IT tech's arm. It dawned on her just then that she should try and slow down and be a little more careful with the wound, she didn't want Felicity to have too much nerve damage. Typing was her thing. Her computers were her babies. Although at this point, Sara wasn't sure if much could be done. Whatever damage she'd sustained had happened when the arrow sliced through her arm. Sara wasn't a doctor, but she was pretty sure there would be some residual effects, the cut was deep.

"Dig you have to help her! She doesn't deserve this! She thought she was doing the right thing! WHAT HAPPENED!?" Oliver was still going on when Roy lightly grabbed his elbow from behind. Oliver swung around so fast Roy took a step back. The look on Oliver's face was simultaneously the saddest and scariest look that he'd ever seen.

"WHAT!?" Oliver barked. Roy pointed over to Moira and Thea sitting on the bottom of the steps staring at him. Looking for answers. Thea was crying out of fear and confusion, but quiet.

"I…I didn't want to tell them…It…" Roy stuttered out before shutting up.

Oliver soften as he looked over at his family. He understood mostly why Moira had kept the truth about Thea's paternity a secret, but he was just so angry earlier that night that he had lashed out. Especially now knowing that Merlyn is still alive, he knew he had to protect them. Protect them all, somehow.

Oliver whipped back to Diggle, who had gone back to working on Felicity, pushing IVs, prepping her chest, etc. Diggle glanced up at him, then over to the Queen women, and gave him a curt nod. Diggle needed to work without interruption, he had Sara to help. Oliver walked up to Felicity who was still unconscious on the table, he put his hand on her face and slid it back over her hair. He leaned over and lightly placed a kiss on her forehead.

"I'll be right over there. Hold on for me ok." Oliver gently whispered into her ear. As he put his hand on her cheek one last time, she unconsciously moved into it further and sighed. He gave a light smile, even passed out, and in pain, and pale, she was still adorable.

"I found her glasses outside, I'll hold onto them for her." He turned around a spoke to Diggle. John gave him a sad nod and moved past Oliver to get back to work.

Everything was out in the open. Everyone had seen. Moira, Thea, Roy, Sara, Dig. Oliver couldn't hide his feelings anymore. He wasn't so much hiding them to begin with as avoiding them. He knew being with her would be complicated and messy. Not to mention way too dangerous for her. But now, none of that mattered. All that mattered was that she stay with them. That she stay with HIM. He intended to keep his promise from earlier that day. He intended never to leave her. Ever. He just needed her to do the same for him.

Now it was time to face the music with his mother and sister. He also needed to get the full scoop on EXACTLY what had happened to Felicity and how. He made a beeline straight for Moira Queen.

A/N: Phew. Angst. I might do the next chapter today as well. I have a flow. I didn't originally intend for this to be Olicity…but apparently that seems to be happening. Do you guys want an Oliver perspective chapter? Yes? Ok well we'll do one that's half and half.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 "THE WHOLE TRUTH…"

"WHAT HAPPENED!?" Oliver stalked up to his mother then way he went after someone on his old list. Getting right up in her face as she stood from the step.

"Merlyn…" was all Moira said. She was too much in shock to be scared of his behavior. She had just seen the face of her son, but he wasn't the boy she knew. He looked like a killer. Not like Malcolm, he wasn't evil, but the rage she saw behind his eyes was something she'd never expected from Oliver. Even when he'd confronted her that night about Thea he had a hurt look. Not rage. Not like she saw now.

"I guess, it's true. You're him? I didn't want to believe it…" Moira said with a tone of disappointment.

He didn't react, she already knew the truth. "What. Happened. How is Malcolm Merlyn alive!? How long have you known that this city was in danger!? Why did he go after Felicity!?"

"Wait…Ollie, is this true? YOU'RE the Arrow? YOU shot Roy?" She looked at him like a stranger. Like she had never been more hurt by someone.

"And what do YOU know about Malcolm Merlyn being alive!? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!? ROY DID YOU KNOW!?" Thea was now looking at Roy, the tears had started to fall but she didn't care who saw. Everyone here had betrayed her.

"Thea…I had t…" Roy started.

"NO! You're a liar! You're all LIARS! I thought I could TRUST you Ollie!" Thea ranted. Nothing was getting accomplished and Oliver had to get answers.

"ENOUGH!" Oliver growled, fists clenched at his sides.

"I get it! You're hurt, we're liars. There's even more that you don't know that you are NOT going to like. It's a terrible situation! But right now, I have a seriously injured friend, an innocent woman who was just trying to help save the city, AND help our family! And I NEED to know EVERYTHING Moira knows. RIGHT NOW! So that I can protect ALL of you!" Oliver was steaming. He understood Thea's anger and frustration, but he couldn't worry about that right now. The time for kid gloves is past.

"Oliver please, not like this…" Moira pleaded, she had officially become frightened. He seemed so unpredictable in this moment, and she clearly knew what he was capable of. She had seen the news reports, and he…

"OH MY GOD!" Moira suddenly gasped!

"I shot you! Oh my GOD!" She was horrified! It had finally hit her that her son was the Arrow and that that one fateful night, she had shot him. Her own son.

Oliver just rolled his eyes. Thea gasped and looked over at her Mom through tears that were running pretty consistently at this point.

"Yeah, it's fine, Felicity brought me here, and her and Diggle patched me up. That is a story that is for another time. Mother. Tell me what you know." He said, softer, punctuating each word and touching his mothers arms as a sign of safety. As the adrenaline from the night started to wear off, he remembered that she is still his mother. She's in shock, and she loves her kids. He also knows that she helped get Felicity here alive.

"Ok, what were you doing at Felicity's condo? We'll start simple." Oliver sighed.

Moira looked over at Thea, a look of terror came over her face as she thought back to what Merlyn had said. Then she thought about the fact that Thea was about to find out her dark secret, and that she'd probably react the same as Oliver, or worse.

Whipping her head back to Oliver, she pled silently to do this away from Thea.

Oliver understood, he would tell Thea alone, after he got the story from Moira.

"Thea…"

"NO Ollie! No more secrets! I wanna know what the HELL is going on! I have the right to know!" Thea was clearly still fired up.

Oliver puts his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. She didn't flinch away, which was a good sign.

"Thea, I PROMISE you, that I will tell you everything. I mean EVERYTHING. But right now, I just need a few minutes with Mom. I need to know what happened, and she seems to be in shock. Just go over to the kitchen with Roy for a water, or to the couch to sit. Whatever you need to do. I promise. Just a few minutes." Oliver said quietly and sincerely.

All anyone could her was the sound of Felicity's monitors beeped in the background, and Diggle's soft voice whispering orders to Sara.

Thea studied his face for a few seconds. He had betrayed her trust, yes, but she knew him. She had known the minute he came back from the island he was different, and she didn't push him. She let herself disconnect from the darkness that had entered him. And she knew that. It was just as much her fault as his. But she was still angry with him for not trusting her.

"Ok, she relented. But you have 20 minutes before I start to freak out again." With that, she glanced at her mother and turned to walk to Roy, who led her to the kitchen area.

Oliver softly grabbed Moira's elbow and led her over to Felicity's desk chair. She looked around and figured out immediately that Felicity was a part of this and that this was where she did her genius magic. The technology astounded Moira.

"Mother…? Why were you at Felicity's house tonight?" he repeated once she turned and focused on him.

She let out a deep breath. He wasn't going to like any of this.

"You left me." She started softly.

"I don't blame her now, but I was so angry. I was scared…" She started to tear up again think about everything that had happened in the past hour. Everything had changed. She was going to lose both of her children.

"Mom."

She looked back up, guessing that she had zoned out.

"Sorry, umm. My trial, when I got a not guilty verdict…I was confused. I should have gone to prison. But I was grateful to be back with you two. It was later that night, my driver took me out to a place in the middle of nowhere. I was scared, but I wasn't sure what I was going to be facing. I knew then that there would be strings to my release. I didn't expect it to be him…" Moira, had to pause and take a few more deep breaths. She hadn't spoken about this to anyone, and the last time she did….she glanced over at Felicity.

"It's ok, go ahead. You're safe down here, Thea is safe down here. Felicity made sure of that." He had seen her look over, and knew she needed reassurance that Felicity was part of this. That she understood the risks.

"He told me he rigged the trail, he told me he knew about Thea. He had gotten a paternity test done in secret. I was terrified. I didn't know what he would do. All he told me that night was that it was imperative know one else find out about Thea's paternity and that he was alive. Especially you. I didn't know why at the time, but now it makes sense I guess."

"I killed him. Or at least I thought I had. I watched him…" Moira closed her eyes and put her hand up, not wanting to hear the rest of that sentence.

"Let me get through this, I can't hear that right now, please…"

"Sorry, go ahead."

"When Ms. Smoak. Felicity. Came over to the mansion last night, I didn't everything I could to get her to keep her mouth shut. I'm not proud of it. I used everything I had found out about her personally to scare her. To keep her quiet. Her parents. Her feelings for you. You have to understand, Malcolm made it clear that if anyone told you, they wouldn't survive. And I was afraid that you and Thea wouldn't survive as well. So I did it. I hurt her. But she told you. And you left. I was shocked, I didn't know what to do. Next thing I know I'm at her condo, smacking her in the face."

Oliver's eyes lit up with anger.

"WHAT!?" He growled. Diggle looked over angrily. Oliver was distracting and he wanted to make sure he knew it.

Oliver glanced over at Diggle and understood. He closed his eyes and dropped his head for a second. Taking a deep breath he looked back up at Moira.

"Go ahead."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I did it. I was just so scared. She didn't do anything wrong, but she had put everyone we love in danger and I didn't know what to do. I immediately felt ashamed and I got her some ice. I apologized and we sat down to talk. She's an amazing woman Oliver."

He nodded and looked down, then over at Felicity. Then back down to the floor.

"Then what happened. How did she get hurt."

"It was my fault. I told her the truth. I told her what I had found about her family, that I used her feelings for you to keep her quiet….then I told her why it had been imperative that she had stayed quiet. That Malcolm was alive. There wasn't even anytime to react and there was an arrow in the kitchen table. We hid behind the counter and when she reached for her phone he got her arm. She dialed you and you heard what happened. I was keeping pressure on her arm. That's when Malcolm came in. He threatened Thea, he was angry I let someone find out. He said I ruined his plan and he needed to improvise. I pleaded with him, but he shot her. Right there. Point blank. He said he wanted me to watch her die slowly. That it was my fault. Oh my god Oliver I'm so sorry. She didn't deserve to get mixed up in all of this. She loves you, she was just trying to do right by you and I got her hurt. I'm so sorry…" Moira started sobbing from the stress of the night.

All Oliver could bring himself to do right then was place a comforting hand on Moira's shoulder. He was still so angry about her lies, but he knew now was not the time. He had other things to worry about. Like Felicity. And the fact that he was about to blow up his sister's life.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N This chapter I'm changing the story to M just for language. Oh Thea…**

**Oh and I don't own Arrow.**

CHAPTER 6 "…AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH"

Thea came over to Felicity's desk; she had been keeping a close eye on her mother and brother, and realized they didn't seem to have anything else to say.

"Mom…?"

Moira looked up through red eyes and composed herself. She couldn't fall apart right now. Her family was going to need her.

"Thea, I'm going to get a glass of water. Oliver knows everything." She glanced up at him and he met her eyes. "He'll fill you in."

With that, Moira stood.

"No mother, stay. You need to hear some of this too."

Moira looked nervous, like she didn't want to be there when Thea found out about her secret. But, Oliver needed to do this and they both needed to hear it. There wasn't time or energy for repeats.

"Fine, but where do you keep the scotch?" Moira pleaded.

Oliver smiled, understanding the need for something strong right about now. He reached down into Felicity's bottom drawer of the desk and grabbed a bottle of honey whiskey. That was her drink of choice. He knew she would add it to her tea after a long night, or a terrible mission to steady her nerves.

He poured some for his mother in a glass, he used one of Felicity's nerdy mugs for himself, and after a glance to his mother, he grabbed Thea's cup of tea she'd made and added a healthy amount to it.

"Thea. Uh…take a seat I guess. Here goes nothing" Oliver stammered out.

Moira leaned against the desk behind Thea. Oliver pulled over an extra chair Diggle uses for himself. He didn't want to seem imposing on Thea as he told her the truth.

He started from the beginning, skipping over some of the gory details of torture and mayhem. He basically gave them the story had given Felicity. The truth, but with holes and kid gloves. They didn't need to know about how Shado died and Slade going mad. He did tell them about the Mirakuru because he wanted to explain to Thea why he had allowed Roy to join "Team Arrow". He let out a soft, but sad laugh as he told them Felicity's nickname for the group.

"When I got back, I was merciless. I was hell bent on using Dad's book and fixing the city one by one. But after Tommy, everything changed. (He sighed) I went away again, back to the island. I wasn't in Europe. Diggle and Felicity, well mainly Felicity, tracked me down and convinced me to come back. The company needed me. You needed me Thea. When I got back, I decided to continue my work saving the city, but it all needed to change…"

"You stopped killing people." Thea said, and we whipped his head up to meet her eyes. "I watch the news Ollie. But what about that one guy. The Vertigo guy…you didn't kill him because of…"

He cut Thea off immediately knowing she'd start to blame herself. "NO! No Thea. I didn't kill him because of you. Don't ever think that. Not that I didn't want to last year. But this time, he had kidnapped Felicity…"

"That's the call that you got before the verdict. That's why you were so quick to jet. 'A problem at the _office'_ Ollie? Worst liar ever." Thea said rolling her eyes.

"Or so I've been told."

"So you killed him for her?" Thea asked.

"Not exactly. He had two syringes full of a modified version of Vertigo held to her neck, he was going to kill her. I killed him because it was either her life or his. I'll pick her every time."

"Ollie, it's understandable." Thea said.

"It's not excusable. But I did what had to do. I think she's almost over, feeling guilty, but she hasn't really talked to me much about it. She's pretty closed off. I know she has abandonment issue, I think she's scared we'll think of her as a burden or something. I try to get her to understand that she's part of this team, that we care about her, but…" Oliver was cut off by Moira

"She doesn't feel worthy."

Oliver was startled "What do you mean?" he asked, brow furrowed. What could his mother possibly know about Felicity that he doesn't?

"She was abandoned by her father because her mother was sick. She had some sort of brain disease that I can't pronounce. After Felicity's father left, she was left with a delusional, mentally impaired mother, who isolated them for the most part. She abused Felicity, I could tell from everything I read and from her reaction to when I slapped her earlier. She looked at me like it was expected. Like she had dealt with it a million times before. That's part of why I felt so guilty about it." She finished her whiskey in one gulp.

Her children looked at her with shock. Oliver had never seen that side of her before. Compassionate, and so motherly. As terrible as it was that it happened, he was almost glad that Moira had gotten some insight into his beautiful partners past. But he felt guilty knowing.

"I don't wanna hear any more. Anything she wants to tell us she will. I won't invaded her privacy." He said, almost bringing back the angry tone he had successfully stamped down.

Moira looked down in shame and poured herself another glass.

"Thea, there's something else."

"Something else BESIDES all the crap you just told us!?" Thea asked surprised.

"Unfortunately." His face matched the gravity of the statement he was about to say.

"Ollie what the fuck..?" Thea immediately got concerned from his change in attitude. She was always able to read his emotions.

"Malcolm Merlyn."

"He's alive, I know, we discussed this already."

"No. Felicity came to me this afternoon before the press conference. Before everything went down." He paused and took a deep breath.

"Ollie SPIT IT OUT!"

"She told me…she told me that Malcolm Merlyn is your biological father. Thea, he's after you." Oliver said slowly and deliberately as he watch her process his words.

"What…?" Thea said at almost a whisper. Moira turned away.

"I was going to tell you I swear. I just needed some time to process it."

Moira chimed in at the most inopportune time. "YOU TOLD ME YOU WOULDN'T TELL!"

"Yeah well that was THEN! I came back here and talked it out with Sara. Thea, I couldn't lie to you. I could never have lied to you about that." Oliver tried to look her in the eyes, but she was staring at the floor. Her mouth was slack, and her eyes were cloudy with unshed tears.

"Thea…" Oliver tried to get her to respond. Something, anything.

"Thea, I was trying to protect you! I'm so sorry. I knew that Merlyn was dangerous and I didn't want him to come after you! You were only safe if I kept the truth from EVERYONE! Thea I'm so sorry." Moira cried again.

Oliver looked over at her with daggers. She wasn't helping. Thea needed to process this before she would accept explanations.

"He's a killer…" Thea said quietly to the floor.

"What?" Oliver asked just as quiet.

"He's a cold blooded murderer. He killed ALL those people in the Glades! HE KILLED HIS OWN FUCKING SON! MY BROTHER!" Thea whipped around to Moira.

"And YOU! You lied to me my whole life! I don't care WHAT your reasons were! All you ever do is LIE! And hurt EVERYONE around you! I had an affair while married to dad. You conceived me with a PSYCHOPATH! You lied to everyone around us! What the FUCK is wrong with you!?"

Thea turned in the chair and stood up abruptly.

"I need to get the fuck out of here. I can't be around her. I can't…I…I have to be alone!" She started crying and turned her head toward the door. She tried to bolt towards it but Roy appeared out of nowhere in front of her stopping her in her tracks.

"Thea you can't…"

"Roy get the FUCK out or my way!" Thea screamed crying, trying push him or move him. But he was too strong.

"Thea!" Oliver interjected and softly grabbed her elbow to stop the assault.

"Thea, listen to me. You can't go out there right now. Felicity LITERALLY just offered up her life for you. So that I could get to you, and get you to safety over her and Mom. Merlyn knows you're his daughter. He's coming after you. Whatever plan he has. It revolves around YOU! It's safe here. Felicity made sure no one could get in. She has this place locked down like Fort Knox. Please…please stay. I can't lose you." Oliver pleaded in a rare heartfelt, honest moment.

Thea pulled her arm away but stared at him again. That powerful stare that could get him to do anything she asked when they were younger. She abruptly looked over at Felicity, whom Diggle was pouring blood into and trying to prep to take an arrow out of her chest. An arrow that she got because she sent Oliver to get her instead of coming to help. Then she took a glance at her mother. Who had sat in Felicity's chair again, head in her hands, staring at the ground.

"OK" she said quietly, looking back to Oliver.

"Ok I'll stay. But I need time alone. And I need HER" she pointed at Moira "To stay away from me right now!"

Oliver sighed a breath of relief. He honestly thought they were going to have to restrain her.

"And I need another glass of that whiskey."

"You got it." Oliver nodded understandingly and quickly poured more into his/Felicity's mug and handed it to her right away.

She downed it in two swigs and haphazardly shoved it back into his hands. Turning on her heels, she marched over to the couch and sat. Roy following her. 'Like he could do anything to help at this point' Oliver thought.

Oliver walked over to Diggle, leaving his mother to revel in her misery for the time being. He had other concerns now that the explosion was over.

"How is she?" He asked quietly.

"Stabilized for now. Enough to take out the arrow. But I don't know if it's nicked any arteries or how much damage it could do. She should probably have a doctor man. An operating room? I mean, it's one thing for you. But…" Diggle was about to continue when Oliver chimed in.

"It's not safe. He threatened my mother that if she survived he would try again. He is NOT happy right now and Felicity is a big part of that. He feels like she ruined whatever game plan he had going on. He'll go after her. We can do this. What do you need?" Oliver asked.

Diggle took a deep breath.

"I need them to be quiet first of all."

"Done."

"And I'll need your hands. You can be back up in case Sara and I need you. I know you know some things, but we've got more skill and right now she needs the best we've got."

"I understand. Just, fix our girl." Oliver put his hand on Dig's shoulder. "She trusts you. You can do this."

Diggle nodded and slowly looked back over to Felicity. He let out one more deep breath before looking over to Sara, who was checking the monitors.

"Alright. Let's get it done…"

**A/N: Oh my. So much writing happened today. I got this in just under the wire. It'll try to update this weekend but I don't think I'll have time. So I can't make any promises. Have a great weekend everybody. Sorry not sorry about the angst.**


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: OK, for the record. I wrote half of this while I was DJing at a bar on Friday, so I think there are minimal mistakes, but I was REALLY bored and this was a worm in my head that needed to get out. Sorry about the delay, I didn't have time to finish it up until now. Enjoy.

I don't own Arrow.

CHAPTER 7 "BRAVERY"

John was sweating. He had been sweating for almost two hours since Felicity had come under his care. He felt like she needed a real surgeon, but he knew the dangers were too great to remove her from the lair.

So there he stood. One hand on Felicity's shoulder, the other on the arrow in her chest. Alcohol at the ready. He had the painkillers. He had the stitches. He had everything he needed…IF everything went to plan. That was a big if. This woman was his partner, his family, his friend. She was so many things to their little group. He felt the weight of the world on him in that moment. He closed his eyes, and inhaled a slow, deep breath. Saying a silent prayer in his head, he opened his eyes again to see Sara's meeting his.

"You ready?"

"Yeah." Diggle responded to assure her. He didn't need her doubting him as much as he doubted himself.

"One….two….." on the three count, he slowly and steadily pulled the arrow from her chest. It didn't take long for Felicity to wake up from her pain induced stupor and let out a bloodcurdling scream. They hadn't heard her really scream yet, she had been too weak when they reached her to make a lot of noise. But this time, she had rested, she had blood circulating, and she could feel everything just fine.

"DAMN IT! AGGGHHHH! SHIT that hurts!" Felicity panted through the pain.

"Hey girl, take it easy, we're gonna put you right back out. Oliver?!" Diggle looked over and met Ollie's eyes for just a second, then concentrated back on holding Felicity still and keeping the bleeding to a minimum. Sara was already applying pressure to the wound.

Oliver injected morphine into her IV, rendering her motionless within 30 seconds and unconscious again within a minute. He couldn't help but think he'd be haunted by the sound of her scream for years. Maybe forever. In his own way, he loved this woman. He's not sure what that meant, or how deep it was in him, but he couldn't ignore it any more. She was inside his soul, and she wasn't going anywhere. 'Damn it.'

Once Felicity was unconscious again, Diggle got to work repairing the damage. It seemed he was right to worry about the artery behind her collarbone. The arrow had put a small nick in it and not long after starting the repair her pressure dropped to a dangerous level. He had Sara clamp off the artery with her fingers, they didn't have surgical clamps at their disposal. He quick sewed up the artery the best he could and prayed as he told Sara to let go. He waited for over a minute to make sure they'd hold. They didn't, he had missed a stitch towards the edge of the nick and all of them ripped open and it started spurting blood at them again.

"Damn it! I missed it, clamp it off again! NOW!"

Sara did her best to find it again and clamp the artery again as fast as possible, but Felicity's pressure was bottoming out as Diggle stitched as fast as he could. By the time he was almost finished, the monitor flat lined and the other people in the room stared motionless. Diggle was focused, and finished his last stitch.

"Let it go! Let it go!" Diggle yelled at Sara.

She gently but quickly pulled her hand out of her friend's chest and backed away. Oliver had gotten the paddles ready while they were working just in case. Diggle grabbed the paddles from Oliver wordlessly.

"CLEAR!" he shouted, not one second before placing the paddles on her chest and try to jumpstart her heart. Nothing.

He waited for the paddles to charge again.

"Push more blood and epinephrine!" he yelled sharply at Sara again. She was doing a good job of not taking anything to heart and just staying on task. He'd apologize later, not that she expected one.

"CLEAR!" he yelled again, and shocked her a second time, they waited a few seconds and finally Felicity's monitor beeped back to life in a quick steady rhythm. They all let out a collective sigh, Dig wiped the sweat off his forehead and continued with his repair, every so often throwing an order to someone. By the time he was closing up her wound, Moira and Roy had come closer to the table to silently watch. Hoping that praying in closer proximity to the injured girl would help more. Thea stared unblinking at the med bay table from her position on the couch, arms wrapped around herself, letting tears freely fall on occasion when things would get too tense.

Finally after about 1 and a half hours of stitching and working, Diggle put his needle down and picked up the alcohol. Pouring it generously over Felicity's wound, he put the bottle down and placed a bandage over it, taping it down. Glancing up to make sure she had a fresh bag of what was now Oliver's blood, he turned around, walked over to his chair and sat heavily, closing his eyes. He was finished, and exhausted.

Everybody else just stared at him like he'd just went 20 rounds in the boxing ring with Muhammad Ali and won. Oliver had taken off his jacket and button up, leaving him in an under shirt and his suit pants from earlier. Sara was in a sports bra and leggings sitting on the floor next to the med bay table. Roy was still standing in his hoodie and jeans. Moira had walked over to hold Felicity's hand as she slept. It was the least she could do after being partially responsible for all of this. Oliver stared at Felicity's face, alternating with her heart monitor and oxygen levels to make sure everything was ok, not quite believing it was over and she was stable.

ARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROW

Hours had gone by. Dig wasn't sure whether to give her pain medication now, or wait til she woke up from the last round. He knew it would wear off soon and that she would be in pain, but he wanted to be sure she was ok at the same time. Dig opted for the safe route and was waiting at the med bay for her to wake up, dozing off himself after the extraordinarily long day and night they had faced. They had placed a blanket over Felicity and Roy put his hoodie under her head as a pillow so it wasn't so hard a surface. Oliver was leaning against Felicity's desk looking in her direction as Sara was rattling off ideas for defense. They couldn't hide everyone down there indefinitely without supplies, and they all had family, friends and jobs to do. People would start to miss them in another few hours. At the mention of Thea's name, Oliver's head snapped over like he just started listening.

"Thea stays here! So does Felicity! No arguments!" Oliver growled, somewhat taking Sara aback.

"Whoa, Ollie, all I said was they can't stay down her forever. We need a plan. We need to find Merlyn and take him down."

Oliver sighed. "What time is it?"

"Almost 6 a.m." replied Sara as she glanced over at Moira, asleep against a wall near them. Then to Thea, curled in a ball with her head on Roy's lap, both asleep on the couch.

"Alright…enough of this. We need to do something." Oliver said as he stalked away to the "Growly phone", as Felicity had dubbed it. He picked up the modified cell phone and dialed. Sara just watched confused as to what his plan was.

After a few seconds, Sara heard Oliver speak some surprising words.

"Detective Lance. We need a favor."


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 "THE GAME PLAN"

"_Detective Lance, we need a favor."_

"I'm sleeping, can't you have Felicity call me in a couple of hours?" Lance mumbled while looked over to the clock with one eye open.

Oliver paused. He took a sharp breath and continued, "Felicity is down."

"What..WHAT!?" Lance replied sleepily at first, but was shocked into alertness once he processed what was said.

"What the FUCK did you get her into!? Where is she!? Is she ok?!" Lance rambled on, scrambling to get into his uniform pants.

Oliver waited, and carefully thought out his next words before speaking to the frazzled man. He spoke very succinctly and to the point.

"Malcolm Merlyn is alive. He attacked Felicity and Mrs. Queen last night at Felicity's apartment. The Queen family and Felicity are at a safe house, but Felicity was injured. We need you to help get supplies to them and we need your department's help with Merlyn. He won't be easy to take down now that his secret is out." Oliver gave the rundown as directly as he could. He hated needing help, and he hated putting others in Merlyn's path, but he had no choice at the moment. He was down a tech genius, and time was of the essence. They only had so long until Malcolm would find them, or at least track one of the team down in the open and attack. But he also didn't want to reveal Thea's true paternity unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. According to him, an the entire world, Thea was his sister.

"What do you need? And is Felicity ok? Shouldn't you get her to a hospital if she's injured?" Lance asked, more calmly.

"She's stable for now. It's too risky for her to be out in the open right now. We are doing what we can here. She's through the worst of it we think. I need clothes from the Queen mansion for Felicity, Thea, Oliver and Moira Queen. Felicity can just wear something of Thea's for now. Clothes for Sara. Bottled water and non-perishables for at least two days for at least seven people. Can you do that for me Detective?" Oliver requested, trying to sound as polite as possible through a voice modulator.

"Sure, you got it. But they aren't just going to open an investigation into Malcolm Merlyn without proof that he's alive. They are going to need to see some evidence that he's back."

"Check Felicity's condo. It's possible he hasn't cleaned up the scene. Anything I've told you, you can tell the police. EXCEPT about the supplies! Get those FIRST." Oliver stressed, implying that he did not want anyone following the packaged goods.

"OK, OK, I get it. Is my daughter safe? Is she there with you?" Lance asked in a hurry as he climbed into his car.

"Sara is fine, she's helping the Queen family at the safe house."

"Good, where do you want the supplies?"

"Well since it's for the Queens, make it the kid's club. Drop the supplies off at the store room and I'll have someone pick them up and bring them to the safe house. Do not wait for my contact. Do not try and follow my contact. You won't be able to track them" Oliver stated.

"Plenty of rules for a favor. Alright, fine. Gimme some time to get into the Queen mansion. Security…" he was cut off by Oliver.

"They'll be expecting you with the supplies. Just pick them up and drop them off at the club."

"OK, I'll keep in touch about the investigation. We might need your help with this one. Merlyn is smart."

"I'll be keeping close tabs on the investigation. This is priority one right now. Nobody hurts my team." Oliver had to remember not to say 'family'.

"I get it. Keep them safe."

With that Oliver hung up on Lance. He needed to focus on the next step. Make a plan. Sara had thrown out some ideas for locations they could recon.

"Oliver how is Officer Lance involved in all of this?" Moira asked from her seat on the ground. He hadn't realized she had woken up, but she had listened to most of the conversation and read Sara's nervous body language.

"He helped with the undertaking. He doesn't know who I am, but he knows about Felicity. He's helped us in the past." He glanced over at Felicity.

Sara chimed in, "Dad cares about her. I think he worries about her, but he knows what she can do and how brave she's been in the past so he respects her."

Oliver looked over meeting Sara's eyes. He hadn't known that Lance felt that way toward Felicity. He had always just seen Lance as a sometimes ally/sometimes enemy. He hadn't really thought of him as a friend, or even a father figure toward Felicity until now.

"Good, she needs that." Moira added before Oliver could speak. Oliver whipped his head around to his mother.

Moira shrugged and continued. "What? She does. It's not like she has parents. And she deserves respect, she's brilliant to have tracked down the truth about Thea. I buried that deep. Plus, she has to deal with you everyday, not only at the office but here to! God bless her I don't know how she does it. One meeting with you at QC and every board member is ready to tear their hair out."

Oliver just rolled his eyes at her. "Can we get back to the point please." But he knew it was true. Every word. But he needed to stay on task and thinking about Felicity how she was just yesterday hurt to badly. He needed a distraction. He needed to find Malcolm Merlyn and make him pay.

ARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROW

Officer Lance pulled up to Verdant through the delivery bay. He guessed it made sense to take the supplies to a neutral location. But he still thought it was weird. This was in the open. Merlyn, if he was after the Queens, would be staking this place out for sure. But he did as he was told, keeping his eyes peeling for any signs of trouble. That's when his daughter appeared out of nowhere from behind him.

"Dad." She said and he jumped and turned around to see her there in plain clothes.

"Sara! Why would he send you? Wouldn't you be a target as well?" Lance's brow furrowed with worry and he looked around.

"It's ok, I can take care of myself remember? Plus I was the safest option, knowing you'd be here." She added.

"Fine! Fine! I'm just worried about you. This guy is a maniac. He killed half the fuckin' Glades last year. Me and Felicity tried to stop it but…"

"Dad. It'll be ok. We'll get him." She put her hand on his arm. That's when her jacket moved and he noticed some blood on her shirt. She hadn't had a change of clothes and had to wear the shirt she was wearing the night before.

"Sara what the hell! Are you hurt!?" He grabbed her jacket and pulled it away to reveal that her shirt was almost covered in dried blood.

Sara flinched away and covered her shirt back up with the jacket, tears in her eyes never falling.

"I'm fine Dad…I'm fine. It's. It's not mine" She said quietly looking him in the eyes.

His face went pale and he covered his mouth with his hand. Turning around and slouching, head facing the floor, he answered. "It's hers…" He almost whispered.

Sara didn't answer but gave a deep, telling exhale.

"Is she going to be alright? I mean that's. That looks like a lot of…" He stammered as he turned back around to face her.

"We hope so. She's holding up for now, she made it through the hard part, and the night. Only flatlined once but we…"

"FLATLINED! Like she DIED!? What the hell were you guys thinking not taking her to a hospital!?" Lance yelled, already knowing in his head the answer. He was just so angry and needed to vent it somewhere.

"Dad. She's ok for now. She's stable. Alright? We need you guys to help work this case and we need you to have a clear head."

"Why did he come after her? Is it because Mrs. Queen was there? The Arrow said he attacked both of them last night. Why didn't he kill Moira?" Lance was absolutely right.

"There were reasons. Merlyn blames Moira for Felicity knowing some information. He shot Felicity with an arrow to torture Moira, and to prove a point. He threatened Thea and Ollie, then told Moira he would come after Felicity again if she survived. That's all I can tell you. And pretty much the truth anyway. Felicity got a call of the Arrow and he sent us to get Felicity and Moira, while he grabbed Thea and Ollie. We got them all to safety, but didn't have time for supplies. Thank you Dad." Sara explained.

Once he registered all the information and nodded she continued. "OK, you need to go start this up. When you get to the condo, if the black arrows are still there, say you followed up on an anonymous tip. Some sort of domestic disturbance at a friend's home. When you got there, you found the arrow. They should at least consider the small possibility that Merlyn is still alive. Try to get yourself on that. That's all you can do ok?" She looked at his eyes and nodded.

"Alright. I'll do what I can. PLEASE be careful."

"I know. I got it. Now go. I'm not leaving until you leave, and with Merlyn out there it could put me in danger to be here longer than necessary."

"Tricky bastards." He said with a sad laugh. He hugged her good bye and walked out the way he came in, pulling away for Felicity's condo, afraid of what he might find.

Sara simply grabbed the box of supplies and took it down to the basement. Immediately changing into non-blood-covered clothes. Moira did the same. Oliver already had clothes at the club, the men's clothes he requested were for Roy, who also changed. They didn't bother to wake Diggle. Oliver knew he had clothes there as well.

Once everyone was somewhat refreshed, Thea, Diggle and Felicity still asleep, the others started checking the computer for a program that could help them track down Merlyn. They knew they'd be there a while without Felicity. Hell, they could be there a while even WITH Felicity's skills.

ARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROW

Detective (Officer) Lance pulled up outside of Felicity's condo. It was more of a town home really. He's surprised no one had ACTUALLY called in a disturbance considering he could clearly see one of the windows broken and the door was still slightly ajar. It wasn't the greatest neighborhood, he figured they just kept to themselves. Why did she still live out here? Was it a comfort thing? Whatever, he thought as he got out of the cruiser and started his walk up her front path. Every so often he'd see a few drops of blood, but when he entered slowly, he was surprised he hadn't seen more outside. Sara and Roy must have done a great job keeping the ground clean because….Just then the scene hit him all at once and he paled. He had made his way to the kitchen area and the ground was literally covered in blood.

'I guess Merlyn never got back here to clean up.' He thought to himself. Looking to his right he saw a dark, black arrow sticking out of the table. He saw another lying in the midst of some blood on the floor in front of the kitchen counter. There was a towel covered in blood on the floor. He assumed they brought the others with them when they moved her. That's when he let himself think about it. Only for a few seconds. But he took in the scene and let himself accept that this was all Felicity's blood. He took in a deep breath trying not to be sick, and picked up his radio to call it in.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 "OW"

Diggle almost fell out of his chair when he heard the scream. It wasn't loud, it just startled him awake and disoriented him. When he looked up he saw Felicity half sitting up, grabbing her shoulder and sweating with a look of sheer pain.

He stood up quickly and laid her back down, carefully not to touch her injuries or slip the blanket down further. Just for her sake, not that anyone cared at that point.

"Shhh, hey…hey. Relax, I know it hurts. I just needed you to wake up before I gave you any drugs. Do you understand?" He explained to her, her eyes not entirely focusing on him at first.

Felicity nodded her head, and closed her eyes with a grimace. She had slowly awoken with a light burning sensation in her left arm. As she became more alert the sensation traveled slowly up her arm to her shoulder and then chest. She was groggy and confused at first, unable to move or grasp what was happening, then the second the burning sensation hit her chest, her entire left side of her body flared up with intense pain. When she heard her own scream and how weak it sounded, she shut up. It hurt to speak, to breathe, to move.

She felt Dig before she saw him or heard him. When she processed what he'd said, she could just slightly nod her head. Anything more would be using the wrong muscles and cause more pain.

"Felicity, I need you to focus ok. Just breathe through. Look at me…"

She complied. Anything she needed to do to get him to make the pain stop.

"I need to know that you're alright before I give you medication. You scared us, you lost a lot of blood. You understand?" He said as gently as possible.

She nodded again and took a few breaths as deep as she could before she spoke.

"I'm okay. I'm good John. Just in a lot of pain." She said in between pants and short breaths.

"So you know your name, where you're from? ABCs? 123s? Whatever that equation is that you rattle off you yourself when you're trying to stay focused…?"

"Yeah I'm good. Just dying for an aspirin or something." She gave him a grimace that was supposed to be a smile. She closed her eyes again and focused on breathing and keeping the nauseous, dizzy sensation she had at bay.

"Good enough for me. I'm not going to put you out this time. I'm just going to take the edge off. Just let me know if you need more later. But don't get crazy, this is some strong stuff. And DON'T. MOVE. You got it?" He explained as he was pushing some more morphine into her IV.

"Not going anywhere." She panted out. She was losing the battle with the dizziness until the morphine finally kicked in and it was like a weight was lifted off of her chest. She breathed in deep and slow a few times. The dizziness was still present slightly but at least it wasn't from the pain, and the nausea was subsiding to a tolerable point.

"Ahhh. Much better." She mumbled.

Dig laughed at her reaction. "Yeah, I would think so. Sorry about that, I needed to check out that huge brain of yours. Make sure you were ok. Won't happen again."

"How could you ever have doubted me?" She mumbled again. Tripping over her tongue, which felt tingly and heavy.

"Aww man, I'm drunk again." She slurred.

Dig laughed again. "What do you mean, were you drunk today? Because that would be unexpected."

She rolled her eyes and wound up losing him for a second. When her eyes found him again he was smiling.

"No, before, earlier in my apartment. In the car. I felt drunk. It was..annoying. All tingly…" she explained.

"Yes, well, I'm not surprised. But that was in a bad way, and this is in a much more preferred way."

"Where's is everybody" she slurred out sloppily.

"They are over there." He pointed to the other room, they were far away enough and focused, so they hadn't noticed yet that she was awake.

"They were all very worried. You really scared the shit out of us."

"I'm such a bitch."

"I know, right. How dare you. No, seriously, I'm glad you're ok. We need you. You're like…you're like family Felicity. I don't know what we would've done if you hadn't pulled through." John said sincerely as she looked back at him with a teary look. He noticed she wasn't fully focused on his eyes and realized he forgot about her glasses.

"OH! Hold on." He said as he walked over to her desk chair that had Oliver's jacket draped over it. He grabbed her glasses, wiped them off and went back to put them on for her.

"Ooooh, I can see. Thanks." She smiled.

"Don't thank me, if it were up to me they would still be haphazardly laying on the ground somewhere. Oliver found them on his way in and held on to them for you."

"Oh. You suck then." She scoffed.

"Hey man, I just saved your life. A little gratitude?"

She lightly grabbed his hand with her good hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Thank you John. I love you for it." She said sincerely.

"Any time. Just try not to make it a regular thing. I'd like to never see you almost die again, EVER." He insisted.

"I'd like to not almost ever die 'gain. Everr." She was talking sloppy again. He was amused but felt bad at the same time.

"I'm tired…" She said sleepily.

"Well I need you to hold out for a little while. I'm sure Oliver would arrow me right here if he know you were awake and I didn't tell you. Plus Moira is supposed to apologize for that split lip you have, and Thea needs to thank you, and Sara needs to hug you, and…"

"Ok I get it. People like me. Stay awake. Got it. Go get em." She mumbled with a smile.

As he turned to walk away, she noticed something.

"Oh wait." She said just loud enough for him to hear, and he ran back over.

"What's up?"

"Shirt?" Felicity said nonchalantly as she pointed to the blanket that was the only thing covering her.

"Right, on it." He said as he jogged in the other direction. They were close enough that she was only minimally bothered by the fact that he ha to see her exposed during the surgery, she shuttered think that everyone had probably watched. She immediately shoved those thoughts to the back of her mind. She was lucid enough now to care, and she did.

John came back with a tank top of Thea's. Felicity looked confused, but didn't care as long as she had something on.

"Thea's, it's all we could get at short notice." He explained and she just nodded and lifted her good arm for him to help her lift slightly. She was holding herself up into almost a seated position and John politely helped by placing the tank top over her head and slightly over the blanket covering her. Then he braced her back so she could get the one good arm through. Laying her back down, he VERY gently lifted her injured arm slowly through to finish putting the tank top on and placed the blanket back over her. She winced as the movement pulled at her shoulder and arm. The maneuvering also drew attention to her injured hand and arm. She had forgotten about that with all the pain in her shoulder and briefly wondered how that was going to heal. She immediately pushed those thoughts away when she realized she might have permanent damage. She couldn't deal with those emotions right now. Everything was to fuzzy.

"Ok" She said. "Thanks. We're good now. I'll have someone that is NOT you help me with pants later. This table is cold."

He chuckled, thankful that she was still in pretty good spirits considering everything. He was assuming she had a good bit of denial and self-preservation happening, and he was thankful. She had enough to deal with already.

John walked over to the other side of the lair and cleared his throat to interrupt the group. They were huddled around a map, after having given up on trying figuring out Felicity's system after only about 30 minutes. All with the exception of Thea, who was still asleep on the couch in the corner. They all looked tired, and terrible as they looked up at him.

"She's awake, she seems to be ok, and she's drugged." Is all he could get out before Oliver had blown past him to go see her. Moira and Sara were right behind him. Roy trailing behind. John just smiles and shook his head. He was just relieved she came through the other side alright.

Felicity had just let her eyes rest closed for a few seconds when she heard Oliver calling out.

"Felicity! You're awake! How are you feeling are you ok!?" He jogged up to her quickly, hovering over her.

She had opened her eyes to see him quickly coming closer and with the grogginess was slow to process.

"Whooooooaaaa." Was all she said right then and blinked heaviliy.

"Hey, whoa, are you ok?" He asked.

"Yuuupp. You just moved like…really fast." She slurred out and smiled once she got her bearings back.

He smiled apologetically.

"Yeah, sorry, drugs make that kind of…weird. So you're smiling, you doing alright?" He asked and Moira and Sara came up behind him and surrounded her.

"Oh, hey, yeah, I'm ok. Kinda sore but I think I'm high so I don't really care?" She said it as almost a question. Not really sure how to explain it.

Sara chimed in "Just when I thought you couldn't get more adorable, you go and get high on us. Glad you're ok kid."

"Kid?" she scoffed back. "…pssh…kid."

"Well Moira informed us that you only like, 22, so yeah. Kid seems accurate."

"What else did Moira say?" As she shot over her attempt and an intimidating look at the older woman.

"Don't worry about that dear, we're just happy you're back with us. I'm so sorry about earlier, I was…emotional. I never wanted you to get hurt. I'm sorry Felicity." Moira picked up Felicity's good hand and squeezed it gently.

Felicity just looked kind of confused, kind of taken aback from the uncharacteristic apology. But she'd take it. It's better than the alternative.

"Okaaayy…?" She drew out. "I'll live Mrs. Queen."

Just then Felicity remembered something through the fog.

"Wait, is Thea ok? Oliver did you get to her?" she said with a start and shot a look over to Oliver, making her head spin a little more. She closed her eyes as he answered something and waited for the room to stop moving.

"…Felicity…?" Oliver's voice came back to her as her brain settled. She opened her eyes back up to now 4 worried faces.

"Yeah, I'm good sorry, got a little… spinny. Thea?"

"She's ok. She knows everything. She's sleeping on the couch."

"Oh…OH! Moira is HERE!?"

Oliver just looked over at Moira who met his eyes.

"Yeah, she knows everything too. We needed to get them to safety remember? You told me to get Thea here. You saved her life, Merlyn would have found her and done who knows what." Oliver explained.

"Oh…" was all she could get out. She was still fuzzy. She was more tired now than before.

"Ok, well, what's the plan? Are we hiding? Are we fighting?" She asked.

"Searching…" He added. "We're trying to figure out where he might go. The cops are on it too. We sent Lance to your place with a cover story for the cops. He's going to try to get them to open Merlyn's case."

She understood most of what he said through her haze.

"Oh god…my house…the cleaning bill. Terrible." She added, thinking about all the blood she remembered bleeding.

"We'll take care of it later." Oliver said solemnly. He hadn't seen it yet and he didn't want to.

"Wait…you guys didn't touch my babies did you?" She gave a stern look. They all looked guilty. "What's the rule? Come on."

"Well if it's any consolation we couldn't figure anything out." Sara said with a laugh. "We're pretty lost on that thing, and Diggle was sleeping on the job.

"Hey!" He yelled from across the room still.

Felicity chimed back in. "It isn't a consolation, everyone will be punished when I can move again, and I'm going to take a nap now. When I wake back up, I'll need a laptop and something that is not a metal slab. And pants." She added. To tired to care that what she said would normally embarrass her.

"Ok, you got it tough guy. Get some rest. We'll continue to blunder about without you for a couple more hours."

"Good." She said her eyes already closed.

They all breathed a collective sigh of relief and headed back over to the map on the other side of the room. This time, Dig went with them and Moira continued holding Felicity's hand in Diggle's chair. She had already pointed out all the places she remembered seeing or having had meetings with Merlyn over the years. There was little more she could do, she wasn't part of the vigilante club. Frankly, she wasn't interested in becoming a part of it, she preferred not to think about the fact that her son had been a killer.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N Alright enough of the feels, let's get to some action. For the record, this was finished on Friday and I tried to upload it unsuccessfully a number of times. Terrible. Sorry. I was really stressed out and my family made fun of me so I stopped trying. Also, Wednesday's ep. was freakin awesome. THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the support! The end.

I don't own Arrow.

CHAPTER 10 "LET'S GET TO IT"

The next time Felicity woke up, it was a couple of hours later. The pain was more than when she fell asleep, but not as much as when she first woke up. She felt a lot more focused than before. Looking up to her IV, it probably had something to do with the blood bag still hanging attached to her good arm. Diggle would tell her later that he added one more because he wanted to see her blood pressure back to normal.

She glanced over. Moira was still holding her hand and sleeping. She felt a little weird about it, not quite sure whether or not she was comfortable with Oliver's mother yet. As she slipped her right hand away from Moira's, Felicity noticed her wake up immediately. Maybe she wasn't sleeping after all.

"Felicity, how are you feeling? Any better?" Moira meant 'less high?'

"I'm alright, a little more sore, but more focused thank god. My glasses?" she asked, noticing her vision had stayed fuzzy.

"Right here. What else do you need?" Moira asked standing up and hovering. Clearly her guilt over what happened to Felicity was ever present.

"Just pants. And my computer. What have they been doing? Any leads?" She jumped right into it. She had been asleep for too long and they needed her help.

"You should really rest. You don't want to…"

"I'm fine! (she paused) I'm ok. I just need to help Mrs. Queen. Please." She said sternly and intent on looking Moira straight in the eye.

"Ok, I'll go grab some of Thea's yoga pants for you and help you."

"No." Felicity said sternly again. She figured out pretty quickly that she was still very much on edge around Moira.

"I'll just…can you have Sara come over to help please?" She tried to be as polite as possible.

Moira just gave her an understanding look and nodded, silently walking over to, where Felicity now noticed, the whole team was dressed in Team Arrow attire. Moira said something to Sara and Sara hurried over with the yoga pants.

"Hey, good to see you up, well sort of. Need some pants?" Sara tried to keep things light.

"What's going on?" Felicity would have none of that, she was going to help.

"Felicity…"

"No, I'm good, I can help. I just need to know the details." She said as Sara started to help her into a seated position. It was much easier than last time, she was no longer dizzy. But it hurt a little more due to less pain meds, but she could handle it. Sara started to help her into the yoga pants and explained the mission.

"We split up a couple hours ago to do some recon on the few locations Moira had pointed out. Roy came back with some activity on the west side of the Glades at an abandoned warehouse that Merlyn used to use as a front for elicit meetings. We were going to mobilize and confirm Merlyn's presence and decide whether to go in." Sara explained.

"You were gonna go in blind? Did everybody eat their crazy flakes this morning?" Felicity chastised.

"Well we had a decent idea that their would be security and we were going to decide after we had more information on…" Sara defended.

"Stop. I'll hack into the thermal imagery satellite, and get locations for you before you go. I just need help getting to my chair."

"Felicity, I don't think.."

"Ugghhhh! I'm alright! Just let me help!" Felicity yelled in frustration, which actually didn't help her case because she winced at the effort in raising her voice.

"Except for yelling, I shouldn't yell. Obviously. So don't make me mad, just help me." Felicity breathed out.

Oliver had heard her yell and rushed over.

"Felicity, are you…" He stopped speaking immediately when Sara put her hand on his chest and Felicity gave him an angry, frustrated look over her glasses.

Sara was the first one to speak.

"I'm going to help her to her desk, she's going to get us thermal imagery to get a handle on the guards at the warehouse downtown." The look Sara gave Oliver told him to keep his mouth shut and let it happen. Every muscle in his body tensed.

"Can I help you?" He said quietly after a long pause.

Felicity saw he was trying, and started to feel a little guilty at her reaction. She was just frustrated and worried about them.

"Sure, just watch my left. Obviously." Felicity half smiled apologetically.

As him and Sara helped her stand, she got the full extent of the effect her injuries had on her body. She still felt weak, and tired. Her shoulder and chest were throbbing. Her left hand was tingly and her arm was pulsing if she tried to hold it below her heart. She learned in just a few seconds to hold it up to her chest to relieve the pressure. They sat her down in her chair, which was uncomfortable and it was definitely more painful to sit up. She could handle it though, she needed to get them the information before they did something reckless. She was already uncomfortable and guilty with the fact that they had recon'ed the preliminary locations without her scoping them out first.

"OK, you guys didn't hurt anything major on my babies. You're lucky." She glanced at them sternly.

One-handedly she logged in and all her programs blinked active and 3 more screens all the sudden lit up.

"Oh thank god…" Sara sighed. Thankful, that their tech support was back up and running.

Felicity looked up the address, half way slower than normal. Very much annoyed at her type speed. Sara and Oliver, on the other hand, were astonished at how fast she could type with one hand and drugged.

"OK, 4 guards outside, 2 at each exit. 1 at the roof entrance." She paused trying to navigate one handed.

"I've got 5 people inside, 3 scattered on the 1st floor and 2 on the 2nd floor in the same room. We have to assume that if this is Merlyn, that's where he is. I'll stay on comms and keep you apprised of their movements." She looked up at them and they just stared at her for a second, then looked at each other.

Felicity was already annoyed and had no patience.

"Oh for the love of Alan Turing, GO! Moira and Thea are here if I need anything. Can we get Merlyn take care of please? So that Thea doesn't kill Moira." She covered her hand with her mouth with her right hand.

"I didn't mean to say that, I'm still on drugs and bitchy I'm sorry." She said to Oliver.

"Don't worry about it. Please rest if you have to, and ask for help if you need it." He put his hand on her right shoulder and she touched it with her own gently. As fleeting as it happened, they were leaving, Felicity sitting at her desk with the bothersome butterflies that always happened everytime he did something like that.

Before she knew it, it was just her, Moira and Thea. Thea had finally left the couch and come closer to Felicity and her computers to keep an eye on the action. Felicity assumes it was more so she could watch over Roy, whom she had been fairly clingy to in the lair over the past 16 hours when he was there. Thea made a point to stay at least a few feet away from her mother at all times and not speak to her directly. She wasn't doing much speaking at all really. Felicity can't imagine what it would be like to have to process everything she had, then watch the mission on a screen that could possibly kill her biological father. In her head, she knew he was a killer, but she was confused and had conflicting feelings about the whole thing in general. Let alone coming to terms with the fact that it was her brother that would probably execute the murder. That he would execute ANY murder was mindblowing.

Felicity was secretly hoping they would hurry there, get it done and get back so she could lay back down. This chair was killing her, and she was just hoping to make it through the mission without falling over, or something equally as embarrassing like passing out.

"So…" Moira chimed in to fill the silence. Felicity and Thea both whipped over to her with surprise. They had both been lost in her thoughts.

"Do you guys…do this type of thing…often?" She was asking if Oliver was still a murderer. He had said he changed, but she wanted some extra reassurance that her son wasn't as much like her as she feared. Not that she'd ever kill anyone willingly or on purpose, but let's face it, she was partially responsible for 503 deaths in the Glades.

Felicity just looked back at her computer and focused on the mission at hand.

"We do what we can to help. WITHOUT killing people….usually…." She was referring not only to today, but to the worst day of her life (prior to the night before), when Count Vertigo was killed on her behalf. She'd never forget that feeling of sorrow that Oliver had done that for her. His words after were sweet, but did little to assuage the guilt.

They finally popped on her thermal screen. She glanced at her GPS and watched them get into position.

"OK, same positions as when you left 3 on the first floor, 2 on the second."

"_I'll take the roof, and head to the second floor. Dig, Roy, take care of the downstairs guards through the front. Sara, take the back and head up to back me up with Merlyn." _Oliver ordered quietly over the comms.

Felicity and the Queen women sat and anxiously listened to the take downs and watched the thermal imaging one by one. All if the flinching at each loud grunt or noise.

"_Sara, are you in position?"_

"_Right behind ya"_

"_Copy…."_

They heard the door crash open and heard arrows whipping through the air. They heard the distinctive "clack" of Sara's bow staff and a grunt from her with a thud.

"Oh no…" Felicity said as quietly as possible, she didn't want to distract Oliver from the fight. She one-handedly moved the thermal image closer to get a better look. They saw one person on the second floor not moving, and two moving too fast to keep track of. They were flying back and forth into furniture, whipping arrows at each other.

"_What's the matter Oliver? Having a hard time believing your sister is the daughter of a murderer? How about her brother. You thought you murdered me. Doesn't make you any better does it? I'll find her, you'll be dead, then I'll make her exactly. Like. Me."_ They all shuttered at Merlyn's words over the comms. Thea turned around unable to watch, or look at anyone in the face. Tears falling from her eyes to know her biological father was such a monster.

They heard Oliver grunt with force and saw on thermal that one figure had suddenly viciously attack the other with such speed and force that had trouble keeping up. Felicity was having trouble focusing more and more as the pain in her chest and arm started gradually getting worse. She wouldn't show it, but a sheen of sweat and a paler complexion would have given her away if anyone was observing. Right now that were all focused on the fight at hand.

Sara was starting to stir, but it seemed she was too slow. Diggle and Roy were held up downstairs as the guards all had automatic weapons and had them pinned. Oliver was on his own and it had the hearts of his girls back in the lair pounding. Suddenly, they heard Malcolm gasp in pain and surprise. Oliver had picked up a large, sharp broken piece of furniture, and rammed it into Merlyn's gut as he charged. Thea turned back around to see one of the figures drop and the other standing motionless. She put her hands to her mouth and let out a choked sob as she stared at the screen. She had just watched her brother kill her father. Moira put her hand on Thea's shoulder and Thea met her eyes. Moira sighed and pulled her into a relieved hug. It was going to be ok, Oliver was OK and Malcolm Merlyn was dead. Again… Felicity stared at the screen, half still worried, half thankful.

"Oliver…? Are you…"

"_I'm OK, nothing Dig can't fix."_

"Sara?"

She heard a soft grunt, followed by _"I'll be alright, I'm mobile."_ Felicity watched her get up and slowly move over to Oliver on the thermal screen. She was moving slower now. Having broke into a full sweat, trying to keep herself upright from the pain that was now pulsing through her entire upper body with every heartbeat. She finally was able to move the thermal imager to the downstairs where Diggle and Roy were pinned.

"Oliver! Diggle and Roy, pinned on the first floor. Guards are in good position if you take the south stairwell and take them by surprise. There are only two left." She noted.

"_On our way"_ he said.

They watched and listened, as Oliver and Sara easily took down the final two guards and Diggle and Roy announced they were ok as well. It looked like Sara had taken the brunt of any injuries. How they all managed to walk out this easily was a mystery to Felicity. She hated mysteries. They needed to be solved. She followed a hunch and looked up the blueprints to the building again. There was a basement. She looked at the thermals again. Nothing, she couldn't see it.

"Oliver, do you guys see a basement door anywhere?"

"_No, why?"_ he said after a long pause.

"Hmm…"

"_Felicity, what's up?"_

"Shh." Was all she could get out, she was breathing heavily through the pain, and as fast as she could looking up the electric lines for the warehouse. There was definitely a huge amount of energy going to an underground structure.

"Oliver, you guys should…oh no. Guys GET OUT! There's a bomb in the basement, it must've been triggered when Merlyn died or I would have seen it before!" She yelled, ignoring the pain it caused. Moira and Thea had turned around and were watching the screen anxiously as they saw all four figures moving out of the building as fast as possible. Oliver was helping Sara who was a little slower due to her injuries.

"Guys hurry, I have no idea how much time you have or how big this bomb is, but the amount of energy it's sucking up I'm guess it's fucking huge!" Felicity said breathlessly over the comm. Grunting in pain every so often.

One they were in the car she told Diggle to hang a left, it was the clearest way off of the block as the other had path had construction equipment blocking part of the road. Felicity checked the area buildings to make sure they were all vacant. All for at least 3 blocks were abandoned, condemned, or had already fallen from the Undertaking and hadn't been rebuilt.

Suddenly the warehouse exploded lashing the thermal screen bright white, startling Felicity and the other women. As Felicity flinched back she yelped in pain and grabbed her chest.

"_Felicity, are you ok?"_ she heard Oliver over the comm. But couldn't respond. She just focused on breathing through and not moving.

Moira put her hand on Felicity's good should and slowly turned the chair around, seeing Felicity's pale, sweaty face for the first time in too long. She couldn't believe she missed this and that she wasn't keeping a closer eye on Felicity. The fight was just so much to take in and everything had happened so fast. How do they do this every day? And how did Felicity sit behind and watch and listen unable to do anything but help from here? It was torture.

"Hey…hey Felicity. Look at me." Moira said trying to meet her gaze which was glazing over pretty quickly.

Thea was running over to the med bay to find the pain medication Diggle had used, but didn't know which one to pick.

All Felicity could hear was buzzing in her ear as she tried to keep breathing in and out. As the pain started to subside she heard Moira and Thea's frantic voices again.

"….licity. Can you hear me honey?" "Felicity, snap out of it."

She grunted in response and looked up at Moira with a pained expression. She was in too much pain not to trust her right now. There was no choice. She knew she needed help. Having overexerted herself good and proper.

"_Diggle she's not answering, I hear my Mom yelling. Hurry up."_ Felicity heard Oliver over the comm.

"I'm al…" Felicity started but then panted. "I'm al…right…..I'm ok." She whispered.

Moira just looked at her eyes.

"No your not. It's over now, they're ok. You need to lie down. Right NOW!" Moira exclaimed.

Felicity knew she wasn't going to be able to make it to the couch on her own. 'Son of a bitch' she thought to herself as she grabbed Moira's hand a little firmer and started to get up.

"Whoa." Moira said as Felicity stood on wobbly legs with her help.

"Thea, help me, she gonna go down any second…" With that Thea was around her left hip, trying to keep Felicity upright long enough to get to the couch. Why did have to be so far?

Just as they were finally laying her down on her good side and covering her with a blanket, they heard the door alarm sound and Oliver's voice yelling her name. The last thing Felicity remembered was seeing his face, bloody and brusing. He touched her face and kissed her forehead as she finally passed out.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11 "WHAT HAPPENS NOW?"

The next few hours were a blur for everyone.

Diggle was patching up Sara, insisting she go to a hospital. He had given Felicity a healthy dose of painkillers first at Sara's insistence. Now, they were bickering at each other like children in the med bay. Roy was sitting with a crying Thea upstairs in the empty club. She wanted to be out of the lair because it was safe, but wanted to stay close by to make sure the others were ok. Moira had been sitting in Felicity's desk chair. She had rolled it over to the area where the couch was.

Oliver on the other hand, had barely taken his jacket off before he ever so gently moved Felicity's head so he could sit down on the couch, and position her head on his lap. Taking her hair out of the ponytail so she'd be more comfortable, he was stroking a hand through it gently for what seemed like an eternity before she stirred. She started to move and winced without even opening her eyes.

"Shhhh shhh. Don't move, don't move. You'll hurt yourself again." He said softly right up to her ear.

"Mmmmph. Ow." She whispered as she opened her glazed eyes slowly.

"You drugged me again…" She immediately noticed, but didn't make any attempt to move again.

"Yes, I'd think so. Your Superwoman impression almost had you on the floor. But, you'll be alright. As long as you take it easy, ok?" Oliver said. He made sure to use a gentle supportive tone instead of his natural chastising one.

"Is everybody ok? Sara? Did you get Diggle to see to your…" Felicity started sluggishly, not thinking about how she casually placed her good hand on his knee as she spoke.

"We're all going to be fine. Thanks to you. We all would've died if you hadn't figured out about that bomb." Oliver said, still unconsciously running his hand through her hair.

"Hey, you know. All in a night's work." Felicity cracked a half smile and then took a deep breath as she tried to get through the periodic spins her head kept doing.

They continued their light banter, every so often Oliver chuckling at something ridiculous and nonsensical she said while under the influence. Moira watched quietly from a small distance away giving them space. There was obviously something going on between them. She knew how Felicity had felt about Oliver, but had been unaware it was reciprocated. It seemed to her Oliver hadn't even known. Either that or he had been denying it for a long while. She got up after a few minutes to give them their privacy and they never even noticed.

Moira glanced over to check and make sure Sara was ok, she was still sitting up on the table with Diggle stitching up her back. It seemed to be taking forever, but he himself had bruises everywhere, so it had to be difficult. She headed upstairs. This was as good a time as any to face the music.

When Moira reached the club, Thea was sitting with Roy on a couch in the corner. She wasn't crying anymore, actually she had a look Moira recognized. That Thea had been yelling. She used to get it all the time after Oliver and Robert disappeared. Moira would say something that reminded Thea of them and she would go off on a tangent and stomp off. Thea would always come back hours later with that look. She was working through something.

Roy spotted Moira first. He nudged Thea lightly and she looked up at her mother. Roy whispered something to her, and Thea nodded. He got up and headed downstairs to the lair. Thea stood to confront her mother, finally.

It had been a full day since everything had started in the lair the night before. But it seemed like it happened in a flash. One second, they were a normal (kind of normal) family. The next, everyone was a liar, her family was a lie, her father and brother were murderers, and her brother killed her biological father. It had been too much to handle at the time. They just stared at each other for a minute, neither wanting to have the conversation. Neither knowing what the other was feeling. Finally Moira started…

"Baby…I…"

"Stop." She was cut off by Thea.

"But…"

"No, stop…talking. Me first." Thea insisted. Her eyes were lit up, like she wanted to scream and yell and throw things.

Moira shut her mouth and took a quick glance down before looking back up to meet her daughter's eyes. Thea took a deep breath and closed her eyes to collect her thoughts.

"It's not…it's not the same between us. I don't think it'll ever BE the same between us again. Not after…" She took another deep breath.

"Not after everything that happened." Thea stated.

"I understand that you…" Moira started apologetically.

"I'm not finished." Thea interrupted again as Moira quieted. "It won't be the same, but I get it. I do. Malcolm Merlyn…he was pure evil. I can only assume how scary it must've been for you to know that he was out there. I'm sure he threatened you. I just need to know one thing…"

"Anything. I'm done with the lies." Mora promised, tears in her eyes.

Thea paused. "Did Dad know?"

She sounded almost pleading. Like she needed her entire life validated with one statement.

Moira looked down and took a deep breath before explaining.

"A long time ago, I hired a security guard…Leonard."

"I remember, he was Daddy's personal detail. So?"

"I hired Leonard to replace Ken to watch your father, well, Robert. I had suspected him of having an affair with an intern, Isabelle Rochev."

"Oh my GOD! Like…"

"Yes…" Moira continued. "THAT, Isabelle Rochev. Leonard was ex-intelligence and quite costly. He was to report directly to me of Robert movements and time spent with Ms. Rochev." She motioned for Thea to come sit with her on the couch. They sat and faced each other.

"Leonard confirmed the affair, stating Isabelle was fairly obsessive over your father, and that he seemed to enjoy the attention. But he didn't think that Robert loved her. Not like he loved us. Not until the day they packed their things and headed to the airport. They were going to go away together. I don't know where or for how long, but Ms. Rochev seemed to think it was for good. That's when Robert got that phone call that you had broken your arm."

"Oh my god, THAT'S were Dad was!? That bastard!"

"Let me finish. Please. The minute he got off the phone, he told Isabelle what had happened, and that he needed to go be there for you. For his daughter. Ms. Rochev had some sort of break, she was screaming at him and yelling obsanitys. Most interestingly of all, she was reminding him that you…and I'm using her words not mine… that 'you aren't even his real daughter, and that you weren't his real family'."

Thea couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Moira took her hand and shhh'ed her before she continued, her own tears starting to flow as well.

"Thea, he pushed her away. He pushed her out of is way, went over to the car, and yelled to her. He said he never wanted to see her face again, and the no one speaks about his daughter that way. That he didn't care about biology, and that you were HIS little girl and that you needed him. He closed the door, and immediately left for the hospital to see you. I took the liberty of having her fired the next day. That was…satisfying. He never told me he knew, and I never told him that I KNEW that he knew. You were always OUR daughter, and still are. Thea, darling, I didn't make ANY of the right decisions when it came to Malcolm Merlyn. I was weak, and I was scared. But I don't regret anything that led me to having you in my life."

Thea broke down even further, allowing herself to hug her mother. She was still furious, and felt that would take a long time to dissipate. But right now, she just needed her mom to hold her and tell her that everything was ok now. Which Moira did. Thankful that her daughter was even willing to speak to her.

That sat like that for a few minutes, as Thea's and Moira's tears subsided. As they looked up at each other, they saw hope that they could get back something of what they had before. That's when they were both startled by the sound of a man clearing his throat. They both flinched and looked up to see Officer Lance standing over by the bar. He hadn't wanted to intrude, but felt awkward now that he hadn't spoken up.

"Hi." Officer Lance said.

The two women just stared, not knowing what to say or how to react.


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 "UMMMM"

Lance spoke first.

"Ummm. Hello. I see…you guys are…ok?" He struggled to find the words. He didn't know what they knew and they didn't know what he knew.

Moira stood and took a few steps toward him.

"Uh. Yes, thank you Officer Lance. We. We're all going to be fine."

He visibly relaxed. He had been to the explosion site, but hadn't received a call from Sara or the Arrow, even hopefully Felicity, to give him and update on how they were.

"Thanks good, that's…ummm. So, I was wondering if you'd heard from Sara? Or…she…she hasn't called since…"

Moira saw where he was going and spoke up.

"Sara will be ok Quentin. She got a little banged up…umm…"

"In the explosion?"

Moira sighed in relief as well. "Yes and no. But she'll be ok. I promise."

"Oh thank god." He shortened the distance between them and hugged her. He didn't know why but he was so relieved he wanted to hug someone.

"Do you know where she is? Is she going to a hospital or…?"

"Detective, I… I can't…" She made an apologetic and thoughtful face at him. She didn't know how much she could tell him or how to proceed without talking to Oliver, or even Sara. Detective Lance obviously knew about Felicity's involvement and the Sara was also working with The Arrow. But she knew he still didn't know about Oliver and she would keep it that way if allowed.

Neither of them had noticed Thea slip down to the basement. All the sudden they heard a female voice yell from the back.

"HEY THEA, I'M HERE FOR MY SHIFT. SORRY I'M LATE!" It was Sara, doing a horrible job at covering.

Lance looked up at her and ran over to hug her. She grunted and winced stepping back as he hugged her too tight for her injuries to allow.

"Oh hey Dad, a little too hard. I had a rough…ummm." She trailed off, she had inherited the Felicity "Painkillers No Filter" Syndrome, so she just stopped speaking.

"I get it. But you're ok? You'll be ok right? Moira said that…"

"Yeah Dad, I'm alright. Just a little…banged up."

"And you're going to work?"

"Well…we didn't want…I mean..we figured…if we go about normal…there will be less questions when this all..."

"Sara." Another voice came from the back as they all whipped around, shocked, to see Oliver. He was standing at the basement door, still halfway in his Arrow uniform, in green leather pants, face paint smeared, and a black tee shirt.

"Oliver what the hell!?" Sara gasped.

Lance didn't say a word he just stood staring with his mouth open like a fish.

Oliver spoke up immediately, while walking over to them.

"You shouldn't have to lie to your father. He already knows about you and Felicity. He's helped us. At least this way we can try and keep him safe and give him a heads up on things. Assuming he's with us?" Oliver reached them, holding his hand out to Quentin. Who still had yet to close his mouth.

"Oliver, why are you doing this…" Sara said, almost angry, but to the trained ear, she was more relieved than anything. She hated lying to her Dad. He had been so supportive since she had gotten home.

"Detective Lance, you lost your shield fighting this battle last year. You helped this city at the expense of your own happiness. You deserve to know what you are fighting for. Sir?" He asked as he held his hand out again towards Lance.

Lance just looked at Oliver's hand, then at Sara and back at Oliver's eyes. It all made sense, he had suspected it before, but now…Now the undeniable truth was standing right before his eyes.

"Dad?" Sara asked.

"Yeah." Lance said lifting his hand to shake Oliver's.

"Yeah, I'm in. Your secret is safe with me. I just. I'm a little…"

"Shocked? Confused? Bewildered? Tingly?" Moira finished.

"That about sums it up." Lance finished with a sharp exhale.

"Detective…" Oliver started.

"Quentin, please…plus I'm not a Detective any more."

"Quentin, would you like to follow me?" Oliver asked.

Sara looked at Oliver again, apprehensive to bring her father into their dangerous lives. But, just like they'd all said in the beginning. When given the choice…it was ultimately their decision. At least her dad knew how to use a gun.

"Here goes nothin'." Quentin muttered as he followed behind Oliver to the basement with Sara and Moira on his heels.

A/N Sorry so short. I'm just splitting this into two so that you guys don't have to wait til tomorrow. I'm out of time at work and left you hanging all weekend last weekend. It was a hard decision to bring Lance in after everyone else. Buuuuuuut that's what I felt like doing. I love Lance, and I love him and Sara, and Oliver and Felicity….so. Sorry not sorry.

JAG


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13 "YET ANOTHER"

Lance paused in the middle of walking down the steps as he saw the scope of their operation. Sara had to tap him on the shoulder and remind him they were waiting for him to go. He finished walking down in a daze and didn't even know where to start with the questions. His head automatically jumped into "Dad mode", as Sara called it.

"Where's Felicity, is she ok?" he said quickly.

"What?" they all heard Felicity say from the couch. Behind them. She was still laying on her good side but perked up, pushing herself half up in panic when she heard Lance's voice in the lair.

"What the hell…Why…? Oliver?" She stammered, still slurring her words a little. Oliver rushed over to prevent her from hurting herself again.

"Whoa..whoa. It's ok, I invited him down here. Lay back down." Oliver said as he gently rested his hand on her head and she lay back down.

Lance headed over as well, with Diggle behind him. Dig wanted to check on her again anyway.

"OK. Why? Ow….I mean, I'm happy he know but like…whatever, nevermind, who cares, hi Detective Lance. " Felicity winced as she adjusted her body to a more comfortable position. She wished Oliver was still on the couch with her.

"Hey Ms. Smoak. Looks like you got yourself into trouble again. Always somethin' with you isn't it?" Lance said gently as he knelt down in front of the couch and gently grabbed her hand.

She was taken aback by his quiet fatherly tone and kindness.

"Well, last night sucked if that's what you mean. Today was not much better. But I have drugs now so…oops…you're a cop…I mean…aspirin. I mean…I don't know. Oliver..help?" Felicity rambled on, without a filter normally, this was even worse.

Lance just laughed. "I'm sure that the 'aspirin' is working wonders. I'm glad your feeling better. I was a little…shocked at the state of your house. It's good to hear you rambling again." He squeezed her hand again.

"Oh god my house." She facepalmed her forehead. "Is it terrible? It's probably terrible. I'll probably just move anyway. Not like I have a lot of good memories there. Hey, how's Sara? She was like…" Felicity rambled again, but then shut up because she wasn't sure how much Lance knew.

Oliver chimed in. "She's right over there, remember? She's going to be ok. But I think both of you should get to a hospital sooner rather than later. Now that Merlyn is gone you are out of immediate danger. But we need you both well for everything else that's going down. Also…we just…prefer you both well."

Felicity giggled, then made a confused grimace. "How are we going to do the hospital thing? What will we say? What was the original cover story? Wow, I didn't really get any details did I…? Also, I hate hospitals, can I NOT go to one? Can't you just…"

"Felicity." Diggle stopped her. "I know your kind of high right now…on…aspirin…but you need to get that wound checked out by a real doctor. And you arm…"

"I'm in denial about that right now Diggle. Give me at least the amount of time until the doctor tells me how bad to ignore it…please?" she pleaded, knowing in the back of her mind that her hand and arm were mostly likely going to need a LOT of therapy or even surgeries.

"What happened?" Lance asked, noticing the large bandage on her forearm and hand.

"Felicity versus Merlyn's arrows. One got her on the arm and hand, didn't go through but made a nice sized gash." Diggle explained, simultaneously checking the bandage.

"The one on the floor?" Lance assumed.

"Yeah." Moira answered from behind and Lance whipped around to see her face looking guilty.

"I take it you were there, too? I thought I remembered the 'Arrow' saying something about that." Lance said.

Moira just nodded and looked away, wrapping her arms around herself with the memories.

Diggle continued. "Second one was almost point blank in the chest. Nothing was severely damaged. Nicked an artery, and she scared us for a few minutes, but it turned out ok. She still needs to go to a hospital though." He emphasized and turned to face her.

"We have a rule here." Oliver explained. "If your heart stops, and you're not me, you have to go to the hospital. No exceptions." Everybody looked up at him. Felicity looked up horrified.

"My heart stopped?! When did my heart stop? Was I dead!?" Oliver just looked over at Diggle and she followed his gaze. "Dig so when I woke up, you were checking for brain damage? How long? How long was I dead?"

Diggle looked over at Oliver aggravated that he upset her. But he know that she would fight them on the hospital thing unless she got the scope of how bad it had gotten. He responded truthfully.

"2 minutes and 37 seconds. I think." He answered. Felicity paled and took a deep breath to keep the nausea at bay, but kept listening. By now Lance had also lost some color and noticed that Felicity had unconsciously gripped his hand harder at the revelation.

"The arrow nicked your artery and after I stitched it the first time it didn't hold. I scrambled to fix it as quickly as possible but you were bleeding out and flatlined. I finished the repair, and shocked you. Twice. You came back to us, and that's all that matters ok?" Diggle finished as he put a hand on her head.

"Now. Will you please. PLEASE, agree to the hospital?" Oliver pleaded.

Felicity took a moment to gather herself and stave off a panic attack.

"Well I don't really have a choice now do I? Not after all that. But Sara has to come with me because she got hurt too, and we need a cover story." Felicity insisted.

"Actually, you can pretty much tell them the truth about what happened at your condo." Lance explained. "CSU has already been there and know what happened. The cops are all over the explosion downtown. They were tipped off that it was one of Merlyn's old properties. A few bodies were recovered, and they are checking them against Merlyn's DNA now. I told them that I had heard from The Queens and that you were all in a safe house until this was over. They'll probably be expecting you at the hospital anyway Felicity. After what we found I mean…who wouldn't?" He finished.

"It would probably be better if Dad drove us in the squad car, he can say he called the Queens with an update and they felt safe enough to give him their location. I can just say I got hurt picking up the supplies or something, but got away. We'll figure it out. They're going to be suspicious from the way our wounds have been treated anyway." Sara offered.

"I can go with you and tell them I was there at the safe house. They'll see my record of having military training. It should all check out. Lance, you gonna back us up on this?" Dig questioned?

"Yeah, but you might want to wait until the drugs are mostly out of Felicity's system before you go, just in case they ask you about them." said Lance.

"We'll go to my condo first. I have a prescription from a couple of years ago in the bathroom from when I got my wisdom teeth out that I never finished. We can say somebody got them and I used them. That's…kind of legal right?" Felicity questioned?

Lance laughed. "It's legal enough. As long as they were prescribed to you then I think you're ok."

Oliver finally smiled. "OK! So, that's the plan! Let's get outta here! We've been cooped up down here for too long, and these two need a doctor. I'll carry Felicity to the car." He stated firmly.

"Umm…Oliver?" Felicity said looking up at him.

"Yeah what's up?" he said grabbing her hand lightly.

"Your pants?" She noted he was still wearing his arrow attire.

"I mean, I know like…almost the entire world knows who you are now…but we don't want the ENTIRE world knowing." She joked. "That would probably be overkill."

"Damn it. Yeah, ok let me just change and then we'll head out. Mother, Thea, Roy and I will follow you guys to the hospital. Right?"

"Oh yes." Moira answered. "Absolutely."

"Whoa, whoa. No way." Felicity responded.

"What do you mean? Are you still…" Moira started.

"Oh no! it's fine, we're cool. But you guys have all been up for like a million hours, and Sara and I are going to be fine. You should all go home and rest. Then probably give a press conference or something, considering the whole world will know you were involved. I mean, this is pretty big news."

Thea spoke up, "She's right, the press is probably already at our house, and maybe at the hospital, too. We all look like hell. I don' t wanna go on TV with yesterday's clothes and puffy eyes. I'm just sayin'."

Oliver sighed. "Fine, We'll stop home and freshen up. But you guys are going straight to the hospital. The story is solid and you need to get checked out."

"Oh my god fine, we get it, we agreed. Just go get changed already." Felicity said nonchalantly, like she'd been doing it for years.

Oliver laughed, happy to see her putting him in his place again, and quickly went to change. Moira secretly smiled her herself again at the exchange. She was becoming quite the Oliver/Felicity shipper. They needed each other, she thought. Thea noticed to and whispered in her mom's ear.

"What's the over/under on when they're going to make out?" Thea whispered.

Moira just looked at her and nudged her, letting out a quick smile. Then she leaned back in to Thea.

"I call 2 weeks." Moira whispered.

"One." Thea replied and they shook on it. Neither of them noticed Sara until she quietly giggled behind them. They both turned around mortified. She just held up 3 fingers and continued to walk in between them smirking. She glanced behind her and whispered "Days."

When Oliver came back in a few minutes later, Lance and Diggle were talking quietly. Dig was giving Lance more of the Arrow operation history and details. Sara was sitting by Felicity, who had her eyes closed again. In addition, Thea and Moira were smirking suspiciously at him. He was going to ask what was up, but Sara looked up at him and started to smirk conspiratorially as well. He figured he'd better just let it lie, and that he probably didn't want to know. Though, he was happy to see his mother and sister on ok terms again.

Sara gently coaxed Felicity back awake and Oliver picked her up as carefully as possible. He didn't want to jostle her and cause her more pain, as he knew the most recent round of painkillers was starting to wear off again. He could now hear the nuances in her voice and was able to tell how high she was in her speech.

"Alright Lance, lead the way."

A/N: OK, Epilogue next. I'm not getting into the Mirakuru stuff and Slade in this story. It was basically just about Merlyn, the Queens and Team Arrow. I might do a sequel or something with some of that stuff when we get more of the story. I just need some inspiration. And I'm SURE the show will give it to us. As of the point I started writing this, Slade hadn't revealed himself to Oliver yet. I also wanted to do an alternate version of this where Moira was more of a bad guy. I don't know why I made her a good guy in this when the bad guy thing was my whole intention from the start. But…Whatever I like it. One more chapter!


	14. Chapter 14 EPILOGUE

CHAPTER 14 "ALL BETS ARE OFF"

Four days after Felicity had entered the hospital, Oliver didn't come home for the night. Moira hung her head, looked shamefully over at Thea and sighed. She then called Sara to concede that she had indeed won the over/under bet on Oliver and Felicity. They treated her to dinner that night, having been defeated. Sara had had the advantage of seeing the two interact when they thought no one was watching. She knew that Oliver wasn't going to wait more than a few days to make his feelings known after everything they had gone through.

Felicity had to have surgery on her arm the second day she was in, and it was doing surprisingly well. The doctor told them a couple days later that she should get full use back with therapy and exercise. Felicity had assured him she "exercises that hand plenty….by TYPING!". They all had a nice laugh at her expense, and that's the night Oliver had gotten into her bed to hold her until she fell asleep. He wound up sleeping there all night. When he woke up in the morning, she was already awake, contentedly watching him sleep.

"Good morning." He said when he opened his eyes and saw her gazing up at him. He didn't even receive a verbal reply. Felicity just smiled, pulled his head towards her with her good hand, and kissed him for the first time. It was passionate but not forceful. Just like Felicity herself. He noticed that she did it like it was expected. Like it was the most natural thing in the world for them to kiss each other good morning. That's when he realized, he felt the same way. That was exactly how he wanted to wake up every day. By the time the kiss was over and she pulled back shyly, touching her lips with her fingers, Oliver had come to an unwavering conclusion.

"I love you." He said, gently touching her cheek, then brushing a stray piece of hair from her face. It wasn't awkward, and it wasn't forced. It was exactly how he felt. He had decided that the second he realized he loved and wanted her to be his forever, he wanted forever to start right then. They had seen too much sadness, and loss… and death. Waiting at this point seemed to be the least reasonable thing they could possibly do. Having gotten lost in his thoughts for a few seconds, he finally realized she was staring at him. He couldn't read her face, he wasn't sure if it was confusion he saw, or regret, or happiness. It was just a blank expression. He had rendered her speechless for possibly the first time ever. He instantly thought he had misread the whole thing and panicked.

"I mean…I'm sorry…that was…you don't have to…"

"I love you, too." Felicity interrupted. Finally giving him the bright smile she was famous for. His breath hitched as his heart rate slowed back to a normal pace. He had never been that relieved, except maybe the other night in the lair, when her heart monitor beeped back to life indicating they hadn't lost her.

She explained, "I'm sorry, I was just…shocked…that you said it first. I mean, we just had our first kiss. I figured I'd be saying it first and prying it out of you…" She giggled.

"Who knew you'd turn out to be so mushy Oliver Queen." She teased. Thankfully, back to her old self.

"Well, you bring out the 'mush' in me I guess. You tell anybody and I'll never speak to you again." He threatened.

"Empty threat, you already know everyone is going to know about this. I'll probably still be telling them this story on 60 Minutes ten years from now just to torture you…I mean!..." it was her turn to blush at the implication that they'd still be together ten years from then.

"I don't mean…I didn't just say…" She stammered. Oliver finally cut it to save her from herself.

"I'll probably be sitting next to you, rolling my eyes and face-palming embarrassingly." He smiled down at her.

"Not to say you wouldn't deserve it after outing me to the world." He added and mockingly let out a quick scoff.

She smacked his arm, and playfully giggled again. He loved that sound. He loved that smile. He wanted to make her do that everyday for as long as possible. He took her cheek in his hand, and gently pulled her face back towards his to kiss her again. This time, with more passion, and more urgency than the last.

With that they were hooked. Inseparable. They had made the silent, unspoken pledge that they were all in. It had taken them long enough to get passed all the innuendos and personal fears. All of the past baggage. They just accepted each other for who they were,and finally let everything that held them back go. They both would describe that kissed, separately and to other people, as the best kiss they'd ever had.

They spent that whole day in the hospital bed together, just holding each other, talking laughing, kissing. Ignoring what they were about to face with The Man In the Mask, and the mirakuru just for one more day. They just wanted to be happy for a few hours. Revel in their new relationship status, and be excited that they finally stamped all the bad down and let in the good.

Felicity finally kicked Oliver out to go home, shower, and get some real rest. Sara had come by that night after Oliver left to check on Felicity, and to thank her for the fancy dinner. Seeing Felicity's beaming smile as soon as she walked in, Sara knew Moira and Thea were right to assume what had finally happened. Felicity was confused when Sara thanked her, that is until Sara explained that she had won the over/under. Blushing and putting her face in her hand, Felicity couldn't do anything but smile a goofy grin and giggle…for the 800th time that day.

It took them a week to finally release Felicity. Of course, Moira insisted that she convalesce at the mansion with a full staff to help her. And with Oliver. They gave her a separate room, but knew she wouldn't be spending her nights alone. They were right, Oliver snuck in every night to hold her in her sleep, until the one night a few days later when they did a little more than holding. Oliver had originally wanted to move slow in the bedroom department until Felicity was fully healed. One night, Felicity cornered him in his own room and locked the door. She didn't let him protest, putting her hand on his mouth as he went to speak. She then removed his shirt, and hers. The next day he had all of her things moved into his room instead of hers. Felicity would have protested, but she really didn't want to go back to her condo after what happened. The nightmares were bad enough without having to see it in person and relive it. Plus, she wanted to be with Oliver, and it was clear that's what he wanted as well. She decided just to go with it for now.

Things finally came crashing down on them again 3 days later when Slade showed up at the Queen mansion. Oliver and Felicity came home from a work benefit early, because Oliver was still overprotective and thought it might be too much for Felicity too soon. She had scoffed at first, but realized she could use this to her advantage and get him home and back into bed sooner. Unfortunately, by the time they left, her shoulder and arm actually WERE killing her, and she would definitely need to lay down for a while.

They walked through the door to find Slade sitting in the den with Moira, laughing and joking around. Oliver froze on the spot surprising everyone but Slade.

"Oliver this is Mr…" Moira started, but Oliver didn't even acknowledge her and spoke directly to Slade.

"Slade. What are you doing here? ..How?" Oliver started, grabbing a tighter hold on Felicity's hand. Once she heard and registered the name, she held on just as tight.

"Mr. Queen, good see you. It's been a long time." Slade said standing. And walking up, face to face with Oliver.

Oliver instinctually directly Felicity somewhat behind him for protection, and just stared at Slade. Fire in his eyes.

"Oh…how do you two know each other…?" Moira asked. She was immediately concerned by her son's reaction, but has a good poker face. She didn't know what was going on but was not about to reveal that she knew anything about Oliver's double life.

"We met a while back…we have some…unfinished business." Slade explained vaguely, smile still plastered on his evil face.

"Get out." Oliver seethed.

"Why Mr. Queen, so hasty? I didn't mean to intrude, I was having such a great time with your mother here. She delightful." Slade peaked behind Oliver's shoulder. "Ms. Smoak, good to finally meet you. I've heard so many great things. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon." Slade threatened, making Oliver almost shake with anger.

Slade started to walk towards the door, just barely getting by Oliver and Felicity when he suddenly turned around and grabbed Felicity's bad shoulder, spinning her towards him and squeezing hard. His thumb directly where her arrow wound was. All of the breath left her lungs, she couldn't even scream from the pain. Her knees nearly buckled and the blood drained her face. Oliver's hand was on Slade's arm immediately, but Slade didn't budge. He just cocked his head to the left and started speaking again, directly to Felicity.

"Oh by the way, I wish I could say I was sorry to hear about your father…but we both know what kind of a pathetic excuse for a man he was. Goodnight Ms. Smoak. Mr. Queen. I'll be around" He finally let go and Felicity gasped for air.

With that, he turned and walked swiftly to the door almost in one motion. Slamming it behind him. Felicity's knees finally gave out. Oliver caught her mid fall as if he was expecting it, and gently lowered her to the ground. She still was gasping for air, and couldn't speak.

Oliver immediately unzipped the back of her dress and lowered the front to check the bandage. The area around her chest would was red and angry looking but it hadn't started bleeding again. Thankfully, it had healed enough not to open up again. All Felicity could do was lean her head forward into Olivier's chest to brace her weight, and concentrate on breathing through the pain, making small whimpering sounds with every exhale. Moira immediately ran to get Diggle who she knew was probably in the back garage, having just dropped off Felicity and Oliver. Oliver took her chin and moved her face up to look at her. Her eyes were full or tears and pain. When she finally could catch her breath, all she let out was one choked sob before the tears fell down her pale, now sweaty face.

"I'm so sorry. He was dead, he was supposed to be dead. He was never supposed to get to us again. I'm so, so sorry. He'll never hurt you again, I promise. I'll die before I let him to you." Oliver was rambling, in shock and horrified by what had just happened to the woman he loved. Terrified that Slade would make due on his promise, but he knew that he would. Slade was insane, and Oliver knew him well enough that he was ahead of them in every way. Nothing would stop him until he got his revenge.

Felicity had just started to be able to hear and register words again in the middle of Oliver's rant. She pulled her good and up and grabbed on to his lapel for dear life, shaking violently. The fear was finally seeping in through the pain. Did Slade Wilson just threaten her? She couldn't process it all because she couldn't even hear everything he was saying. At a certain point, all she could hear was white noise, and her pulse racing in her ears. Once her breathing evened out, and she was able to look up at Oliver's eyes again, he finally asked the question that hung in the air.

"What did he mean?" Oliver asked.

"what?" Felicity replied weakly. She hated how tiny her voice sounded.

"What he said about your father? What did he mean? Did he know your dad?"

Felicity looked confused. She had missed that part of the conversation, and what Olivier was saying didn't make any sense. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"what do you mean? what did he say?...i couldn't really…hear…" Felicity forced out, looking back up at him. Speaking was difficult for some reason. Probably pain, but she couldn't think.

"Felicity. Can you hear me? Are you with me? I need you to think" Oliver asked concerned.

She just nodded yes and looked up into his eyes with forced resolve. 'Focus' she thought to herself.

Oliver smiled weakly at her. "There's my girl. You can do this. That's right, focus."

She realized she said her thoughts out loud, but was in too much pain to be embarrassed.

"Felicity, Slade said he knows your father. He included to the fact that he's dead, and that he knew him and said that he was pathetic… what does he mean? What is your father's connection with Slade?" Oliver asked pointedly.

Felicity just shook her head slowly, brows furrowed. She looked to the floor to think and closed her eyes again to concentrate.

None of this made sense. How did Slade know her father? He was a horrible man who abandoned her and her mother once he discovered her mother's illness. Felicity was only 3. She barely remembered him. According to her crazy mother, when she was old enough to understand, her father had found out about her mother's illness and only stayed another 6 months. He was weak, and couldn't deal with her mother's outbursts anymore. He left Felicity with a sick, horrible, violent woman at 3 years old. So many memories and feelings were bubbling up through her walls, and through her physical pain. All she could do was shake her head as the tears were pouring out now.

"Felicity…?" Oliver questioned worriedly after a full minute had passed.

"I don't know. I don't know what he's talking about! NOTHING MAKES ANY SENSE!" She the cried out as she screamed, hurting her chest again.

"Ahhh…" She squeaked out again while trying to breathing deeply again. Oliver just held his forehead to hers, and placed a hand on her cheek.

"Shhhh…shhhh, it's alright, we'll figure it out. Just calm down. It's ok, you'll be alright." He whispered. He was trying to keep her calm so she didn't hurt herself again when Diggle finally ran in, followed by Moira.

"John! She's in a lot of pain, but the wound didn't reopen. He just aggravated it. She's calming down but she's hurting." Oliver explained quickly, both of them still kneeling on the floor. Oliver was basically holding her up.

"Alright, Felicity can you get to the couch? Do you want Oliver carry you?" Diggle asked gently,crouching down and looking in her eyes.

She just nodded affirmative. Oliver didn't wait to see which question she was saying yes to, and gently swooped her up with one quick motion. She grunted as he placed her on the couch, and Diggle immediately inspected her wound. It seemed ok, no permanent damage done. Moira was in the background asking questions about Slade, and what he had said about Felicity's father. Oliver was ignoring her, and focusing on Felicity. His anger at Slade, having been kept at bay while taking care of Felicity, was bubbling back to the surface. He had entered their home. He had hurt Felicity. He had been close to his mother. Oliver was seething just thinking about it.

"You just need some pain medication, and some rest. It could have been a lot worse kiddo." Dig said to Felicity as she smiled the best she could. She grabbed his wrist for comfort, and partly in thanks. Speaking right now seemed like a difficult task.

"I'll get her pain meds, be back in a flash." Moira said before she was gone quickly.

Felicity closed her eyes for a second, she was finally getting her bearings back. That is until she heard a loud crash and startled, quickly looking to where the sound came from. Oliver had thrown a vase of scotch into the fireplace, shattering it into a million pieces.

"I KILLED HIM! HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD! HOW IS HE BACK HERE!?" Oliver screamed in his Arrow "loud voice".

"Whoa! Calm down! HEY! Get it TOGETHER!" Diggle yelled walking up and grabbing Oliver's arms before he could punch a wall, and likely break his hand. Oliver wiggled away and pushed Diggle. Not hard, but enough to get him to back off. Then he stopped, and ran his hand over his face and through his hair with anger and frustration. Diggle put his hands up.

"Hey man, hey…We'll figure it out alright. We'll get him. You have more important things to do right now." He spoke so low to Oliver it was almost a whisper, bringing Oliver back to the present situation. He took a deep breath and walked over to Felicity, lightly grabbing her hand.

"Hey, I'm sorry. You alright?" He asked, reverting back to his loving, calm voice.

"yeah" she said softly, and squeezed his hand a little tighter.

"I'll be alright, it's hurting less as time passes. With the drugs I'll be fine by tomorrow." She explained.

"Doesn't mean you're leaving this house, or that room, or that bed for that matter." Oliver said sternly, soliciting an eye roll from his beautiful girlfriend.

"NO. ARGUMENTS." Oliver said decidedly, but not loud.

Diggle chimed in, "I'll have to agree with him on that one, sister. You should rest for at least a day, that kind of shock will aggravate that wound and set you back. Not to mention wear you out pretty fast." He confirmed.

"Don't gang up on me." She said tiredly.

Finally, Moira came running back in with the pain medication and a glass of water. Diggle gave her a normal dose and they waited with her. Keeping her company until it kicked in. Finally, she was slurring her words and joking around. Oliver decided that it was her bedtime shooing away Diggle and Moira. He lifted her up, and carried her up to "their room". He carefully took off her dress and bra for her, as she had completely passed out on the way upstairs. Replacing them with one of his old button up dress shirts, he then got changed himself. After going into his bathroom to make a quick call to his security team to up all security to red level, he came back into the bedroom and slid up next to her under the sheets.

Oliver stayed awake most of that night watching Felicity sleep, imagining what could have happened. He vowed he would make Slade pay, and he'd keep her safe at all cost. They would figure out what Slade meant about her father, and Oliver would finish this. No matter what.

A/N: STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT STORY. It'll be a continuation/sequel of this, obviously. I hope you guys enjoyed my first Arrow fic story as much as I enjoyed writing it! The feedback was amazing! You guys are all amazing! I love you and I hope to figure out what's next for Oliver and Felicity, and get it to you asap! HEARTS AND BUBBLES, RAINBOWS AND UNICORNS!

JAG :)


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